Search code examples
rubyparsingcsvmultiple-columnsruby-parser

Why do I have a trailing column when reading a CSV file?

I have a CSV file whith the following structure:

"customer_id";"customer_name";"quantity";
"id1234";"Henry";"15";

Parsing with Ruby's standard CSV lib:

csv_data = CSV.read(pathtofile,{
    :headers => :first_row,
    :col_sep => ";",
    :quote_char => '"'
    :row_sep => "\r\n" #setting it to "\r" or "\n" results in MalformedCSVError
})

puts csv_data.headers.count #4

I don't understand why the parsing seems to result in four columns although the file only contains three. Is this not the right approach to parse the file?

Solution

  • The ; at the end of each row is implying another field, even though there is no value.

    I would either remove the trailing ;'s or just ignore the fourth field when it is parsed.