Is a back slash followed by a double quote valid as per CSV spec?

Question

I am trying to parse a CSV file with openCSV CSVReader, I have some records in the file like this...

"npg6851",,"Wonderful reminder\","This is perfect, I always wanted", ,"5","Nancy88","published"

As this answer indicated, that sequence \" is interpreted as a literal non-enclosing quote and the parser tries to read everything afterwards are one value (regarding any comma delimiters).

Is this considered valid according to CSV specifications?

There is no CSV spec; it's a wild tangle. This is one of the biggest challenges with CSV. Various CSV parsers have configuration options regarding quoting. — chrylis -cautiouslyoptimistic-, Mar 06 '19 at 16:35
@chrylis there actually is one: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4180 from 2005, populair programs like libreoffice follow the RFC, and by doing so, they even support csv's containing newlines in the values — Ferrybig, Mar 07 '19 at 07:03

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 06 '19 at 16:37

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Looks like according to the CSV RFC, there are no issues with using backslash in a quoted CSV field, so it is valid.

This makes sense, because this issue is strictly Java-based (and any other programming language that uses \ as its escape character). Solving this, however, seems to have a very difficult solution.

answered Mar 06 '19 at 16:37

Matt

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Most people don't read the CSV spec when they make a parser, leading to all sorts of issues like the OP is saying – Ferrybig Mar 06 '19 at 17:19
This has nothing whatsoever to do with the language's internal string escaping unless the question is about an inline constant string read as CSV. – chrylis -cautiouslyoptimistic- Mar 07 '19 at 14:08

Is a back slash followed by a double quote valid as per CSV spec?

1 Answers1