8/5     help, there are commas INSIDE the fields of my Comma Separated File
        E.g. column 136, is  "lastname, firstname".  Now, being so
        damn clever, i figured that hey, i'll just make the field separator
        \",\" but that doesn't work 'cause the number fields aren't quotated.
        What should i do? -phuqm
        \_ ~scotsman/bin/csv.pl
           But you could just go through and add quotes around the currently
           nonquoted fields.  I've seen some stupid csv handling in any number
           of products.  Basic csv is: 1) comma separated 2) if field contains
           a comma, surround with "'s 3) if field surrounded by "'s contains
           "'s, escape the "'s as "".  Many people can't get this through
           their skulls.  --scotsman
        \_ clever? use tabs as delimiter
           \_ I didn't generate the file. -phuqm
           \_ self-depricating sarcasm is a sign of maturity. insults are not.
        \_ Find which lines have excessive # of commas and massage those data
           lines differently? Or if ALL lines are "lastname,firstname"
           then just treat it as an additional command-separated field.
           Or convert the data so that the where quotes and commas occur,
           convert them to 3 commas or some OTHER field-separator like
           # or % or something not used anywhere in your datafile
           It's very simple, so maybe i do not understand what ur asking.
           \_ Oh the sanity and simplicity of it all! Can't you make it more
              complex to show your superiority?
        \_ this is a standard CSV format.  the comma is a delimiter but the
           "x,y" is _also_ counted as a single item.  oddly enough, CSV files
           have 2 delimiters and you need to program for both the simple case
           and the "matching double quoted" case.
           \- use (f)lex --psb
              \_ use perl. type perl csv in google.
                 \_ sigh... this was covered in one of my cs60c projects.  now
                    they just type keywords into google and copy the results.