ref: 3efb5bbb4061056e523858b134c555949591efe2
dir: /man/1/sh-csv/
.TH SH-CSV 1
.SH NAME
csv, getcsv \- parse ``comma-separated values''
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B load csv
.B getcsv
.I command
.br
.B ${csv
.IB list }
.br
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B Csv
is a loadable module for
.IR sh (1)
that provides the facility to parse and generate
``comma-separated value'' lists, a widely used
data exchange format.
Data in this format is usually in the form of a table,
each row of which contains one or more items,
each separated by a comma
.RB ( , ).
Items that contain
a comma or a newline are surrounded with double-quotes
(\f5"\fP).
A double-quote within an item is represented by a pair
of double-quotes.
Two primitives are provided:
.TP 10
.B getcsv
.B Getcsv
works similiarly to
.B getlines
in
.IR sh-std (1).
It reads from the standard input, and for every line read,
invokes
.I command
with
.B $line
set to the items found on that line (one element per item).
.B Getcsv
recognises the usual loop
.B break
and
.B continue
exceptions.
.TP
.B ${csv}
.B Csv
yields a single element containing all the items in
.IR list ,
comma-separated and quoted as necessary.
.SH SOURCE
.B /appl/cmd/sh/csv.b
.SH SEE ALSO
.IR sh (1),
.IR sh-std (1)
.SH BUGS
Empty lines are ambiguous:
.B csv
treats an empty line as containing a single,
empty element; there is thus no way of
representing a line containing no elements at all.