Csv
is a loadable module for
sh(1)
that provides the facility to parse and generate
``comma-separated value'' lists, a widely used
data exchange format.
Data in this format is usually in the form of a table,
each row of which contains one or more items,
each separated by a comma
(,).
Items that contain
a comma or a newline are surrounded with double-quotes
(").
A double-quote within an item is represented by a pair
of double-quotes.
Two primitives are provided:
getcsv
Getcsv
works similiarly to
getlines
in
sh-std(1).
It reads from the standard input, and for every line read,
invokes
command
with
$line
set to the items found on that line (one element per item).
Getcsv
recognises the usual loop
break
and
continue
exceptions.
${csv}
Csv
yields a single element containing all the items in
list,
comma-separated and quoted as necessary.
Empty lines are ambiguous:
csv
treats an empty line as containing a single,
empty element; there is thus no way of
representing an line containing no elements at all.