miller/c/csv-rfc.txt
2015-08-25 22:57:20 -04:00

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Offlineable (subway-tunnelable) excerpt from https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4180
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Definition of the CSV Format
While there are various specifications and implementations for the
CSV format (for ex. [4], [5], [6] and [7]), there is no formal
specification in existence, which allows for a wide variety of
interpretations of CSV files. This section documents the format that
seems to be followed by most implementations:
1. Each record is located on a separate line, delimited by a line
break (CRLF). For example:
aaa,bbb,ccc CRLF
zzz,yyy,xxx CRLF
2. The last record in the file may or may not have an ending line
break. For example:
aaa,bbb,ccc CRLF
zzz,yyy,xxx
3. There maybe an optional header line appearing as the first line
of the file with the same format as normal record lines. This
header will contain names corresponding to the fields in the file
and should contain the same number of fields as the records in
the rest of the file (the presence or absence of the header line
should be indicated via the optional "header" parameter of this
MIME type). For example:
field_name,field_name,field_name CRLF
aaa,bbb,ccc CRLF
zzz,yyy,xxx CRLF
4. Within the header and each record, there may be one or more
fields, separated by commas. Each line should contain the same
number of fields throughout the file. Spaces are considered part
of a field and should not be ignored. The last field in the
record must not be followed by a comma. For example:
aaa,bbb,ccc
5. Each field may or may not be enclosed in double quotes (however
some programs, such as Microsoft Excel, do not use double quotes
at all). If fields are not enclosed with double quotes, then
double quotes may not appear inside the fields. For example:
"aaa","bbb","ccc" CRLF
zzz,yyy,xxx
6. Fields containing line breaks (CRLF), double quotes, and commas
should be enclosed in double-quotes. For example:
"aaa","b CRLF
bb","ccc" CRLF
zzz,yyy,xxx
7. If double-quotes are used to enclose fields, then a double-quote
appearing inside a field must be escaped by preceding it with
another double quote. For example:
"aaa","b""bb","ccc"
The ABNF grammar [2] appears as follows:
file = [header CRLF] record *(CRLF record) [CRLF]
header = name *(COMMA name)
record = field *(COMMA field)
name = field
field = (escaped / non-escaped)
escaped = DQUOTE *(TEXTDATA / COMMA / CR / LF / 2DQUOTE) DQUOTE
non-escaped = *TEXTDATA
COMMA = %x2C
CR = %x0D ;as per section 6.1 of RFC 2234 [2]
DQUOTE = %x22 ;as per section 6.1 of RFC 2234 [2]
LF = %x0A ;as per section 6.1 of RFC 2234 [2]
CRLF = CR LF ;as per section 6.1 of RFC 2234 [2]
TEXTDATA = %x20-21 / %x23-2B / %x2D-7E