How in this case I would handle the spaces each cell (eg: col 0 row 1 etc) content is having.

If you are using spaces as field delimiters, and you have (non-escaped) spaces in your data, you don't handle it. You're asking the wrong question and trying to solve the wrong problem.

The problem isn't how to parse the data, it's how to get valid data. Data in a format that can't be cleanly parsed is what we usually call garbage data.

A well known maxim in the Database world (and elsewhere in IT), is "Garbage in, Garbage out". If you can't provide good data to process, or come up with a way to clean up your data before processing, you will never valid, reliable, trustworthy results out.

Additionally, once you find a way to either get clean data or properly clean up your data, the parsing will likely be much simpler to figure out.

Christopher Cashell

In reply to Re^3: Columnwise parsing of a file by topher
in thread Columnwise parsing of a file by ghosh123

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