Problem due to double quote while parsing csv.

Question

I have csv file in the follwing format,

"1";"A";"A:"61 B & BA";"C"

Following is my code to read csv file,

with open(path, 'rb') as f:
    reader = csv.reader(f, delimiter = ';', quotechar = '"')
    for row in reader:
        print row

The problem is, it breaks row in 5 fields,

['1', 'A', 'A:61 B &amp', ' BA', 'C']

Whereas I was expecting my output to be,

['1', 'A', 'A:61 B & BA', 'C']

When I remove double quote before 61 B in the csv file, I get output as,

['1', 'A', 'A:61 B & BA', 'C'] which is perfectly fine, but why is double quote in the middle of the field is causing problem even though delimiter and quotechar has been defined?

Answer 1

Your csv file is invalid. If a quote occurs inside a (quoted) string, it must be escaped by doubling it.

"1";"A";"A:""61 B & BA";"C"

would result in

['1', 'A', 'A:"61 B & BA', 'C']

How should the CSV module guess the difference between quotes that delimit an item and quotes within the item?

Answer 2

I suspect the double-quote should be replaced by ".