Re: Ragged CSV import

Josh Berkus wrote:
> On 9/9/09 12:59 PM, Andrew Dunstan wrote:
>   
>> I have received a requirement for the ability to import ragged CSV
>> files, i.e. files that contain variable numbers of columns per row. The
>> requirement is that extra columns would be ignored and missing columns
>> filled with NULL. The client wanting this has wrestled with some
>> preprocessors to try to get what they want, but they would feel happier
>> with this built in. This isn't the first time I have received this
>> request since we implemented CSV import. People have complained on
>> numerous occasions about the strictness of the import routines w.r.t.
>> the number of columns.
>>     
>
> Would this just work on columns on the end, or would it work on the
> basis of parsing the CSV header and matching columns?
>
> While the former functionality would be relatively simple, I think the
> latter is what people really want.
>
>   

No, it's the former, and that's exactly what the client requested. I'm 
not talking about parsing the header line - that's a much larger can of 
worms.

cheers

andrew