Read values with comma from csv in java

Question

I have the following code to read from csv file in android. It works fine expect for the case when i have commas in my column values.

    File file = new File(IMPORT_ITEM_FILE.getPath());

    BufferedReader bufRdr = null;
    try {
        bufRdr = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(file));
    } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {

    }
    String line = null;

    try {
        while ((line = bufRdr.readLine()) != null) {

            String[] insertValues = line.split(",");


                string column1 = insertValues[1];

                string column2 = insertValues[2];
        }

        bufRdr.close();
    }

My csv row is like : name of user ,"some string, with commas","2740740, 2740608",,"some, string, with commas"

How can i escape the commas within column values to read the columns.

mnaa · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-05 06:16:00Z

4

I suggest you use http://opencsv.sourceforge.net/ . it will handle everything for you if your CSV file source file is correctly formatted.

Example usage:

InputStream csvStream = getAssets().open(yourCSVFile);
        InputStreamReader csvStreamReader = new InputStreamReader(csvStream);
        CSVReader csvReader = new CSVReader(csvStreamReader);
        String[] line;

        while ((line = csvReader.readNext()) != null) {
                     String example = line[0]; // first item of your csv row
                  }

answered Mar 5, 2014 at 6:16

mnaa

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1 Comment

isumit Over a year ago

OpenCsv solved the problem. I used the he following code

CSVReader reader = new CSVReader(new FileReader("yourfile.csv"));      String [] nextLine;      while ((nextLine = reader.readNext()) != null) {          // nextLine[] is an array of values from the line          System.out.println(nextLine[0] + nextLine[1] + "etc...");      }

isumit · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-05 06:38:14Z

1

I'd suggest splitting using RegEx. You could use something like: \"(.*?)\",?

I don't have Java setup on the computer I use, but something like this should work. Can't guarantee it will compile though.

String myString = "\"name of user\",\"official address, city\",\"2740740, 2740608\",,\"address, city, state\""

Pattern myPattern = Pattern.compile("\"(.*?)\",?"); 
Matcher myMatcher = myPattern.matcher(myString); // myPattern to match against string
while (myMatcher.find())
{
    System.out.println(myMatcher.group(1));
}

edited Mar 5, 2014 at 6:38

isumit

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answered Mar 5, 2014 at 6:13

joshhendo

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2 Comments

isumit Over a year ago

Your code compiles successfully. But it gives me only the columns values contained in double quotes. All other columns are skipped

joshhendo Over a year ago

Ahh OK, I thought all your values were within quotations. It may still be possible with RegEx, but if the other solution worked then that's probably a better way to go :)

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