How to use python csv module for splitting double pipe delimited data

Question

I have got data which looks like:

\"1234\"||\"abcd\"||\"a1s1\"

I am trying to read and write using Python\'s csv reader and writer. As the

Answer 1

The docs and experimentation prove that only single-character delimiters are allowed.

Since cvs.reader accepts any object that supports iterator protocol, you can use generator syntax to replace ||-s with |-s, and then feed this generator to the reader:

def read_this_funky_csv(source):
  # be sure to pass a source object that supports
  # iteration (e.g. a file object, or a list of csv text lines)
  return csv.reader((line.replace('||', '|') for line in source), delimiter='|')

This code is pretty effective since it operates on one CSV line at a time, provided your CSV source yields lines that do not exceed your available RAM :)