Split a string ignoring quoted sections

Question

Given a string like this:

a,\"string, with\",various,\"values, and some\",quoted

What is a good algorithm to split this based on

Answer 1

If my language of choice didn't offer a way to do this without thinking then I would initially consider two options as the easy way out:

1. Pre-parse and replace the commas within the string with another control character then split them, followed by a post-parse on the array to replace the control character used previously with the commas.

2. Alternatively split them on the commas then post-parse the resulting array into another array checking for leading quotes on each array entry and concatenating the entries until I reached a terminating quote.

These are hacks however, and if this is a pure 'mental' exercise then I suspect they will prove unhelpful. If this is a real world problem then it would help to know the language so that we could offer some specific advice.

Answer 2

I use this to parse strings, not sure if it helps here; but with some minor modifications perhaps?

function getstringbetween($string, $start, $end){
    $string = " ".$string;
    $ini = strpos($string,$start);
    if ($ini == 0) return "";
    $ini += strlen($start);   
    $len = strpos($string,$end,$ini) - $ini;
    return substr($string,$ini,$len);
}

$fullstring = "this is my [tag]dog[/tag]";
$parsed = getstringbetween($fullstring, "[tag]", "[/tag]");

echo $parsed; // (result = dog) 

/mp

Answer 3

The author here dropped in a blob of C# code that handles the scenario you're having a problem with:

CSV File Imports in .Net

Shouldn't be too difficult to translate.

Answer 4

Here's one in pseudocode (a.k.a. Python) in one pass :-P

def parsecsv(instr):
    i = 0
    j = 0

    outstrs = []

    # i is fixed until a match occurs, then it advances
    # up to j. j inches forward each time through:

    while i < len(instr):

        if j < len(instr) and instr[j] == '"':
            # skip the opening quote...
            j += 1
            # then iterate until we find a closing quote.
            while instr[j] != '"':
                j += 1
                if j == len(instr):
                    raise Exception("Unmatched double quote at end of input.")

        if j == len(instr) or instr[j] == ',':
            s = instr[i:j]  # get the substring we've found
            s = s.strip()    # remove extra whitespace

            # remove surrounding quotes if they're there
            if len(s) > 2 and s[0] == '"' and s[-1] == '"':
                s = s[1:-1]

            # add it to the result
            outstrs.append(s)

            # skip over the comma, move i up (to where
            # j will be at the end of the iteration)
            i = j+1

        j = j+1

    return outstrs

def testcase(instr, expected):
    outstr = parsecsv(instr)
    print outstr
    assert expected == outstr

# Doesn't handle things like '1, 2, "a, b, c" d, 2' or
# escaped quotes, but those can be added pretty easily.

testcase('a, b, "1, 2, 3", c', ['a', 'b', '1, 2, 3', 'c'])
testcase('a,b,"1, 2, 3" , c', ['a', 'b', '1, 2, 3', 'c'])

# odd number of quotes gives a "unmatched quote" exception
#testcase('a,b,"1, 2, 3" , "c', ['a', 'b', '1, 2, 3', 'c'])

Answer 5

Here's a simple python implementation based on Pat's pseudocode:

def splitIgnoringSingleQuote(string, split_char, remove_quotes=False):
    string_split = []
    current_word = ""
    inside_quote = False
    for letter in string:
      if letter == "'":
        if not remove_quotes:
           current_word += letter
        if inside_quote:
          inside_quote = False
        else:
          inside_quote = True
      elif letter == split_char and not inside_quote:
        string_split.append(current_word)
        current_word = ""
      else:
        current_word += letter
    string_split.append(current_word)
    return string_split

Answer 6

Of course using a CSV parser is better but just for the fun of it you could:

Loop on the string letter by letter.
    If current_letter == quote : 
        toggle inside_quote variable.
    Else if (current_letter ==comma and not inside_quote) : 
        push current_word into array and clear current_word.
    Else 
        append the current_letter to current_word
When the loop is done push the current_word into array