Re: multiline CSV fields - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

From Bruce Momjian
Subject Re: multiline CSV fields
Date
Msg-id 200411120447.iAC4l6m21290@candle.pha.pa.us
Whole thread Raw
In response to multiline CSV fields  (Andrew Dunstan <andrew@dunslane.net>)
Responses Re: multiline CSV fields  (Andrew Dunstan <andrew@dunslane.net>)
List pgsql-hackers
Can I see an example of such a failure line?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Andrew Dunstan wrote:
> 
> Darcy Buskermolen has drawn my attention to unfortunate behaviour of 
> COPY CSV with fields containing embedded line end chars if the embedded 
> sequence isn't the same as those of the file containing the CSV data. In 
> that case we error out when reading the data in. This means there are 
> cases where we can produce a CSV data file which we can't read in, which 
> is not at all pleasant.
> 
> Possible approaches to the problem:
> . make it a documented limitation
> . have a "csv read" mode for backend/commands/copy.c:CopyReadLine() that 
> relaxes some of the restrictions on inconsistent line endings
> . escape embedded line end chars
> 
> The last really isn't an option, because the whole point of CSVs is to 
> play with other programs, and my understanding is that those that 
> understand multiline fields (e.g. Excel) expect them not to be escaped, 
> and do not produce them escaped.
> 
> So right now I'm tossing up in my head between the first two options. Or 
> maybe there's another solution I haven't thought of.
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> cheers
> 
> andrew
> 
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