Replacing csv commas with tabs

Question

Has anyone come accross a command, preferably in vi to replace comma's seperated fields with tab delimited fields? I know about the substitution command but as people who work with csv files might know that fields of data with commas in them have quotation marks around them, I need to keep these commas in the file.

Answer 1

Not sure if I understand this 100%
But if I do, then this should work:
`fixcsv.py inputfile outputfile`
Things that are quoted because they contain a comma will no longer be quoted since thats no longer the delimiter (tab is). Also, you can uncomment the commented out line to have every field surrounded in quotes.
#!/usr/bin/python
#fixcsv.py
import csv
import sys
reader = csv.reader(open(sys.argv[1], "rb"))
writer = csv.writer(open(sys.argv[2], "wb"), delimiter='\t')
#uncomment next line if you want everything quoted
#writer = csv.writer(open(sys.argv[2], "wb"), delimiter='\t', quoting=csv.QUOTE_ALL)
writer.writerows(reader)
Be sure to backup your data just in case.
Last edited by sabooky (2007-06-06 05:00:14)