Very good arguments (as always) Sebb. I'd also be OK with leaving as is, until we have a user with a good reason for changing the send/create.
And thanks for including the author of the quote. Going through his Wikipedia page, lots of things to read later. Bruno ________________________________ From: sebb <seb...@gmail.com> To: Commons Developers List <dev@commons.apache.org>; Bruno P. Kinoshita <brunodepau...@yahoo.com.br> Sent: Thursday, 23 August 2018 11:23 AM Subject: Re: [CSV] Inconsistent record separator behavior On 23 August 2018 at 00:01, Bruno P. Kinoshita <brunodepau...@yahoo.com.br.invalid> wrote: > >>Maybe I'm just not getting it, but it feels pretty messed up :-) > > > Mutual feeling, and +1 for consistency. From what I understood, users should > be able to parse these crazy CVS's, but if they tried to re-create them, with > comments, then they wouldn't be able to avoid the println/newline (so it > wouldn't be parseable later with the same reader). > > > We probably need a ticket for it to aggregate the discussion and maybe a > possible solution. I'm wondering whether we need to be as flexible when *creating* the CSV files. "Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative in what you send" (Jon Postel) In this case send == create, as it might be sent to other less liberal readers. I don't have a problem with the output being less flexible, so long as it is sufficiently flexible (which I think it likely is already). I don't think consistency is necessary - or even desirable - here. > Cheers > > ________________________________ > From: Benedikt Ritter <brit...@apache.org> > To: Commons Developers List <dev@commons.apache.org>; > brunodepau...@yahoo.com.br > Sent: Thursday, 23 August 2018 7:10 AM > Subject: Re: [CSV] Inconsistent record separator behavior > > > > Hi Bruno, > > Am Mi., 22. Aug. 2018 um 15:10 Uhr schrieb Bruno P. Kinoshita > <brunodepau...@yahoo.com.br.invalid>: > >> Hi, >> >> >> Will try to look at the code and give a better answer during the weekend. >> But risking a silly question, would it mean that users are not able to >> parse a CSV unless each CSV row is separated by LF or CRLF? > > > Yes. > > >> I remember getting a CSV in a government website some time ago that was >> formatted in a very strange way, and if I remember well it was a small >> file, but without LF or CRLF. I think it was using | to separate the rows, >> and , for columns. >> > > I didn't know that there are formats that don't use a new line as line > separator. > > >> >> >> Quick search returned at least another person with similar issue >> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29903202/how-to-read-csv-on-python-with-newline-separator >> >> >> Not sure if I understood the problem well, but in case it makes sense... >> my suggestion would be to perhaps confirm if we could change >> CSVPrinter.printComment to accept other characters for line ending? >> > > The inconsistency I'm seeing is, that we an the one hand accept any > character sequence as a record separator. Comments in a way a like special > records to me. But our implementation seems to put them on a new "line" > using the println() method. The println() method in turn uses the record > seperator to start a new record. So it's not necessarily a new line. > Nevertheless while processing a comment, we look out for CR and LF and then > we call println() again. Maybe I'm just not getting it, but it feels pretty > messed up :-) > > Regards, > Benedikt > > > >> >> >> Thanks! >> >> Bruno >> >> >> ________________________________ >> From: Benedikt Ritter <brit...@apache.org> >> To: Commons Developers List <dev@commons.apache.org> >> Sent: Tuesday, 21 August 2018 7:13 PM >> Subject: [CSV] Inconsistent record separator behavior >> >> >> >> Hi, >> >> >> we have this strange handling of record separator / line endings in CSV: >> >> >> Users can use what ever character sequence they like as a record separator. >> >> I could for example use the ! character to mark the end of a record. >> >> Then we have CSVPrinter.printComment(String). This inserts comments into a >> >> CSV output. It detects CRLF and call println() on the CSVFormat, which in >> >> turn uses the record separator to indicate a new record... >> >> >> So now I'm thinking: Does it make sense to use anything else but LF or CRLF >> >> as record separator? Maybe we should deprecate >> >> CSVFormat.recordSeparator(String) and introduce a LineEnding enum where >> >> users can choose between LF and CRLF. This way we can make the behavior >> >> between parsing and printing consistent. >> >> >> Thoughts? >> >> Benedikt >> >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@commons.apache.org >> For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@commons.apache.org > >> >> > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@commons.apache.org > For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@commons.apache.org > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@commons.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@commons.apache.org --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@commons.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@commons.apache.org
