Comma-delimited values

[wayne durden]

Hi David, Richard et al.

I hear your pain on the CSV issue.  However, wishing it would die I think
deserves a more careful reflection.  Sometimes the devil you know is worse
than the alternative...

I use RunRev almost exclusively for parsing and processing datasets for
active traders.  CSV is one of the few remaining source formats that can be
easily resolved.  I use the flag method to handle quotes in the dataset...

The other alternatives my clients can provide are far more problematic ([XML
parsing - in theory good, in practice on large datasets there is almost
always some breakage in the dataset or the time to handle a large dataset is
exponentially greater than plain CSV ] [Excel - now virtually impossible to
deal with without a manual intervention and conversion])

So yes, CSV has it's problems.  Pipe delimited would suit me better.  But a
simple line based ordered dataset has proven in practice to be much more
usable and quicker to handle than fancier solutions...

Don't wish a CSV death on me please :)

Wayne


On Mon, Mar 8, 2010 at 2:51 PM, David Coker <davidocoker at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, Mar 8, 2010 at 12:55 PM, Richard Gaskin
> <ambassador at fourthworld.com> wrote:
> <rant>
> CSV must die.
>
> Please help it die:  never write CSV exporters.
> </rant>
>
> After my last foray into the world of CSV and the *many* problems I
> ran into, I decided to take Richard's little rant a step further...
>
> ...Not only will I not ever write a CSV exporter, but I will no longer
> attempt to support CSV, even as an import option for anything I build.
>
> That policy may make a few folks unhappy and/or possibly cost me a few
> sales should I go that route, but with certainty, it will not
> perpetuate the problem from either end in the future.
>
> I think I'd prefer the competition (if any), to have all of those
> support issues they want. ;-)
>
> Regards,
> David C.
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