Removing the double quotes from a CSV file.

I would like to remove the double quotes from a CSV file but am having a bugger of time doing so.

My input file looks like this:

"Book1 number 1",120.00,140.00,,,"Great Book"
"Book2 number 1",12.00,99.99,,,"Losy Book"
"Book2 number 2",19.00,34.00,,,"Do not read"

First I break up the line into an array so as to be able to manipulate each field easily.

string[] strSplitData = strDataLine.Split(',');

I now have the line split into an array and can easily do whatever I need to do. But I do not require the " that is leading an trialing in array element 0 and array elment 5. So I try to remove the " with the replace function. The problem is that the replace function uses the " as a delimiter.

Here is the way to remove a , ( comma ) from the array elment.
strSplitData[0].Replace( ",", "" );

I've tried many different approaches but obviously not the right one.

Any Ideas Idea

Thanks

PS Single quotes in the replace function cause a complier error.

Answer this question

Removing the double quotes from a CSV file.

Evils Dark

You can try to parse it with the FileHelpers library

http://filehelpers.sourceforge.net

you need to define a class for the records:

[DelimitedRecord("\"")]
public YourClass
{
   [FiledQuoted()]
   public string First;
   [FiledQuoted()]
   public double Second..

....
}

and then use the library like this.

FIleHelpersEngine engine = new FileHelperEngine(typeof(YourClass));

   // to read
   YourClass[] res = engine.ReadFile("csv.txt");

   // to write
   engine.WriteFile("csvout.txt")

Best Regards
Avnish Kumar Sharma
I think it is not a good idea to do a simple split by coma. If for example a text field has a coma in the middle Also simple removing quotas is not a best solution because if the field has a quota then in CSV file it will be doubbled - you've got to remove doubles as well. You can say It is not your case - well it is about design quality.

I would suggest to process the string as character by character.

HTH

Slav.
Dan Mork
strSplitData[0] = strSplitData[0].Replace("\"", "");
Hong
Thank you, your solution works as well.
Wojteq
Thanks to my friend here's how to solve the problem above.

strDataline.Replace( @"""", "" );

The above syntax will remove any occurences of the quotation mark ". The answer lays in the usage of the escape clause, the @. Any double occurence of a character allow for that char to be contained within the varable. In this case the " mark. The @ is a system escape character.
Removing the double quotes from a CSV file.

Answer this question