I experimented with the tokenizer at one time. The escaped tokenizer worked after a fashion. If you don't have null elements (e.g.,....,item1,,item3,.....) it is not too bad. However if you define CharTokens cs(boost::keep_empty_tokens); EscapedTokenizer et(buffer,cs); you can get the empty tokens. The downside is you also get the separators as I recall but you can skip over the separators as you iterate over the result. I think if you iterate with EscapedTokenizer::iterator you will still get the surrounding quotes for any item that is quoted. Another heavyweight scheme is using Spirit. I found an early version of a test that I think worked although I would be hard-pressed at the moment to explain it. string buffer("\"string\",\"string with an embedded \\\"\",123,0.123,,2"); // example string for parsing rule<> list_csv, list_csv_item; vector<string> vec_list; list_csv_item = confix_p('\"', *c_escape_ch_p, '\"') | longest_d[real_p | int_p] ; list_csv = list_p( !list_csv_item[append(vec_item)], ',' )[append(vec_list)] ; parse_info<> result = parse(buffer,list_csv); if (result.hit) { // Got something if (result.full) { // Complete } else { // Not quite everything } // iterate through vec_list or vec_item for data } else { // Didn't parse } With very simple csv files you could use split() from string_algo. vector<string> sv; split(sv,buffer,is_any_of(",")); You end up with a vector of the elements. A null item will be present in the vector. Embedded separators won't work in this scheme as I recall. There may be easier schemes. I don't recall seeing a regex scheme. Spirit I think actually uses the Tokenizers under the covers and can use regex in some cases. Larry ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jeff Dunlap" To: Sent: Friday, November 14, 2008 2:34 PM Subject: Re: [Boost-users] Regex - Reading CSV files like MS Excel does

I've been looking at those googled expressions and they don't seem to handle the CSV file the way they should.

I'll continue experimenting or use Boost.Tokenizer for this purpose as suggested by Eric Malenfant.

Thanks

"Jeff Flinn" wrote in message news:gfk7o3$3mc$1@ger.gmane.org...

...

Jeff Dunlap wrote:

...

The expression regex e(",") handles files in a clean format such as:

field 1,field 2,field 3

I would like to read some CSV files where there may be fields that contain a comma (enclosed in ""):

1999,Smith, Mike, "Smith, Mike", 55 1999,Doe, Jane, "Doe, Jane", 45

And if possible, I would like to handle commas and quotes within the field:

1999,Doe, Jane, "Doe, Jane "Happy Gurl"", 45

googling regex csv yields several hits the first of which is:

http://geekswithblogs.net/mwatson/archive/2004/09/04/10658.aspx

Jeff

--

ELKNews FREE Edition - Empower your News Reader! http://www.atozedsoftware.com

_______________________________________________ Boost-users mailing list Boost-users@lists.boost.org http://lists.boost.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/boost-users

Thanks for the info. I really was hoping to use Regex and if I can't figure it out, I'll definately use Tokenizer for this purpose. "Eric MALENFANT" wrote in message news:F660559FAA5FCD46B38F53152D092E28020983C6@ares.INTERSTARINC.COM... Jeff Dunlap, le 13 novembre 2008 23:18:

The expression regex e(",") handles files in a clean format such as:

field 1,field 2,field 3

I would like to read some CSV files where there may be fields that contain a comma (enclosed in ""):

1999,Smith, Mike, "Smith, Mike", 55 1999,Doe, Jane, "Doe, Jane", 45

escaped_list_separator in Boost.Tokenizer seems to do what you need. Éric Malenfant --------------------------------------------- -- ELKNews FREE Edition - Empower your News Reader! http://www.atozedsoftware.com