Can the CSV module parse files with multi-character delimiters?

Question

I have a "CSV" file that uses a multi-character delimiter, so the data looks something like

field1_|#|_field2_|#|_field3_|#|_field4

Is there a way to use the Python CSV module to parse this file?

Answer 1

Try to replace the multichar delimiter with the singlechar one.

Somethin like this:

class DelimitedFile:
  def __init__(self, fname, mode='rb', ind=',', outd=','):
    self.f = open(fname, mode)
    self.ind = ind
    self.outd = outd

  def __iter__(self):
    return self

  def next(self):
    line = self.f.next()
    return line.replace(self.ind, self.outd)

Use it like so:

import csv

delimiter = ','

reader = csv.reader(DelimitedFile(fileName, ind='_|#|_', outd=delimiter))

for row in reader:
  print row