Hello,

I just wanted to point out a bug in the original post by "PhilHibbs". That code mostly works, except for the handling of embedded double quotes. To fix this, change the line beginning with "if ($qv ..." to:

if (not $dq and $_ eq '"') { $dq=1; next; }

For convenience, here is a complete script that includes the bug fix and also writes the output to standard output, as opposed to writing to a file: 

#!/usr/bin/perl

## Converts an Excel-style CSV-formatted file to TAB-separated format
## Note: doesn't handle newlines in quoted values

use strict;
use warnings;

while (<>) {
   my $tab = "";
   my $qv=0; # Quoted value indicator
   my $dq=0; # Double quote flag indicates the previous character was 
+a "
   for (split //) {
      # Start of a quoted value
      if (not $qv and $_ eq '"') { $qv=1; next; }

      # Double quotes within or at the end of a quoted value
      if (not $dq and $_ eq '"') { $dq=1; next; }

      # If last char was a double quotes OR we're not within a quoted 
+value, comma = tab
      if (($dq or not $qv) and $_ eq ',' ) { $dq=0; $qv=0; $_="\t"; } 
+# End of field

      # Two consecutive double-quote characters within a quoted value
      elsif ($dq and $_ eq '"') { $dq=0; } # Double double quotes
      $tab .= $_;
   }
   print $tab;
}

[download]

Cheers,
---Reed

In reply to Re: Converting CSV to tab-delimited by ReedMeyer
in thread Converting CSV to tab-delimited by PhilHibbs

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