How can I parse quoted CSV in Perl with a regex?

Question

I\'m having some issues with parsing CSV data with quotes. My main problem is with quotes within a field. In the following example lines 1 - 4 work correctly but 5,6 and 7 d

Answer 1

You can parse CSV using Text::ParseWords which ships with Perl.

use Text::ParseWords;

while () {
    chomp;
    my @f = quotewords ',', 0, $_;
    say join ":" => @f;
}

__DATA__
COLLOQ_TYPE,COLLOQ_NAME,COLLOQ_CODE,XDATA
S,"BELT,FAN",003541547,
S,"BELT V,FAN",000324244,
S,SHROUD SPRING SCREW,000868265,
S,"D" REL VALVE ASSY,000771881,
S,"YBELT,"V"",000323030,
S,"YBELT,'V'",000322933,

which parses your CSV correctly....

# => COLLOQ_TYPE:COLLOQ_NAME:COLLOQ_CODE:XDATA
# => S:BELT,FAN:003541547:
# => S:BELT V,FAN:000324244:
# => S:SHROUD SPRING SCREW:000868265:
# => S:D REL VALVE ASSY:000771881:
# => S:YBELT,V:000323030:
# => S:YBELT,'V':000322933:

The only issue I've had with Text::ParseWords is when nested quotes in data aren't escaped correctly. However this is badly built CSV data and would cause problems with most CSV parsers ;-)

So you may notice that

# S,"YBELT,"V"",000323030,

came out as (ie. quotes dropped around "V")

# S:YBELT,V:000323030:

however if its escaped like so

# S,"YBELT,\"V\"",000323030,

then quotes will be retained

# S:YBELT,"V":000323030: