Parse CSV, ignoring commas inside string literals in VBA?

Question

I have a VBA application that runs every day. It checks a folder where CSVs are downloaded automatically, and adds their contents to a database. When parsing them, I reali

Answer 1

@Gimp said...

The current answers do not contain enough detail.

I'm running into the same problem. Looking for more detail in this answer.

To elaborate on @MRAB's answer:

Function ParseCSV(FileName)
    Dim Regex       'As VBScript_RegExp_55.RegExp
    Dim MatchColl   'As VBScript_RegExp_55.MatchCollection
    Dim Match       'As VBScript_RegExp_55.Match
    Dim FS          'As Scripting.FileSystemObject
    Dim Txt         'As Scripting.TextStream
    Dim CSVLine
    ReDim ToInsert(0)

    Set FS = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    Set Txt = FS.OpenTextFile(FileName, 1, False, -2)
    Set Regex = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")

    Regex.Pattern = """[^""]*""|[^,]*"    '<- MRAB's answer
    Regex.Global = True

    Do While Not Txt.AtEndOfStream
        ReDim ToInsert(0)
        CSVLine = Txt.ReadLine
        For Each Match In Regex.Execute(CSVLine)
            If Match.Length > 0 Then
                ReDim Preserve ToInsert(UBound(ToInsert) + 1)
                ToInsert(UBound(ToInsert) - 1) = Match.Value
            End If
        Next
        InsertArrayIntoDatabase ToInsert
    Loop
    Txt.Close
End Function

You need to customize the InsertArrayIntoDatabase Sub for your own table. Mine has several text fields named f00, f01, etc...

Sub InsertArrayIntoDatabase(a())
    Dim rs As DAO.Recordset
    Dim i, n
    Set rs = CurrentDb().TableDefs("tbl").OpenRecordset()
    rs.AddNew
    For i = LBound(a) To UBound(a)
        n = "f" & Format(i, "00") 'fields in table are f00, f01, f02, etc..
        rs.Fields(n) = a(i)
    Next
    rs.Update
End Sub

Note that instead of using CurrentDb() in InsertArrayIntoDatabase(), you should really use a global variable that gets set to the value of CurrentDb() before ParseCSV() runs, because running CurrentDb() in a loop is very slow, especially on a very large file.