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https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CSV-253?focusedWorklogId=523374&page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:worklog-tabpanel#worklog-523374
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ASF GitHub Bot logged work on CSV-253:
--------------------------------------
Author: ASF GitHub Bot
Created on: 12/Dec/20 07:00
Start Date: 12/Dec/20 07:00
Worklog Time Spent: 10m
Work Description: lbruun commented on pull request #51:
URL: https://github.com/apache/commons-csv/pull/51#issuecomment-743715066
@divijvaidya. The PR is what it is and is complete. However, since time has
now passed the PR now has a minor merge conflict. Also my changes to Javadoc
states (for this new feature) "since 1.8" which seemed reasonable at the time
because it was the the (then) upcoming release and I was hoping the maintainers
would include my PR for that release. Version 1.8 has since then been released
_without_ this PR so that would need to be changed in the PR.
Anyway, my main problem is that I haven't been able to explain to
maintainers of this library why this is a missing feature in the library. In
short why the library should be able to distinguish between (when parsing):
```text
545-03-1234,"","Doe"
```
and
```text
545-03-1234,,"Doe"
```
..and why the existing feature,
`org.apache.commons.csv.CSVFormat.nullString`, doesn't address this problem.
You can see the explanation and discussion
[here](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CSV-253?focusedCommentId=16962105&page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel#comment-16962105).
Note that once maintainer(s) of the library agree to the problem being
present then the next discussion is obviously _how_ to address it. My
suggestion in this PR favors strict backwards compatibility (no breaking
change) : I simply introduce a new attribute rather than changing what the
existing attribute `nullString` does. This will probably be confusing for users
of the library, but the alternative - breaking change - is worse IMHO.
I'll be glad to update the PR if I thought it had chance of being accepted.
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Issue Time Tracking
-------------------
Worklog Id: (was: 523374)
Time Spent: 50m (was: 40m)
> Handle absent values in input (null)
> ------------------------------------
>
> Key: CSV-253
> URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CSV-253
> Project: Commons CSV
> Issue Type: Improvement
> Components: Parser
> Reporter: Lars Bruun-Hansen
> Priority: Major
> Attachments: 2019-10-30 20_31_39-Apache Commons CSV 1.8-SNAPSHOT
> API.png, Parser-setting-absentIsNull-Javadoc.png
>
> Time Spent: 50m
> Remaining Estimate: 0h
>
> The parser must be able to handle absent values in input and translate that
> into {{null}} as required. I see several tickets on this matter in the
> history, but none seem to have addressed the issue, at least not for parsing.
> For this problem, I see a need to introduce a new term:
> Definition: _Absent value_ is when there are zero characters between field
> delimiters.
> Specifically the aim is to be able to parse the following:
> {noformat}
> "John",,"Doe" // 2nd element is absent
> ,"AA",123 // 1st element is absent
> "John",90, // 3rd element is absent
> "",,90 // 2nd element is absent (1st element isn't)
> {noformat}
>
> See also CSV-93 which I think never addressed the issue, probably because the
> reporter was happy with having the issue fixed for CSV output, not for
> parsing.
> A PR is coming...
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