Can you encode CR/LF in into CSV files?

Question

Is it possible/legal to somehow encode CR/LF characters into a CSV file?

(as part of a CSV standard?)

If so how should i encode CR/LF?

Answer 1

the most common variant of csv out there which is the excel compatible one will allow embedded newlines so long as the field is surrounded by double quotes.

foo,bar,"blah blah
more blah blah",baz

or

foo,bar,"blah blah
more blah blah"

or

"blah blah
more blah blah",baz

are all valid. This mechanism also allows for embedded commas.

Using quotes around textual fields without embedded new lines (or commas) is fine too. If the text itself contains a double quote then mechanism to escape it is to put two together, for example.

foo,bar,"this person said ""blah blah 
more blah blah""",baz

Writing a csv reader that handles this correctly can be tricky (especially if you are relying on regular expressions).