Splitting a line of a csv file into a std::vector?

Question

I have a function that will read a CSV file line by line. For each line, it will split the line into a vector. The code to do this is

    std::stringstream ss(sText);
    std::string item;

    while(std::getline(ss, item, ','))
    {
        m_vecFields.push_back(item);
    }

This works fine except for if it reads a line where the last value is blank. For example,

text1,tex2,

I would want this to return a vector of size 3 where the third value is just empty. However, instead it just returns a vector of size 2. How can I correct this?

Answer 1

You could just use boost::split to do all this for you.
http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_50_0/doc/html/string_algo/usage.html#id3207193

It has the behaviour that you require in one line.

Example boost::split Code

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <boost/algorithm/string.hpp>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
    vector<string> strs;

    boost::split(strs, "please split,this,csv,,line,", boost::is_any_of(","));

    for ( vector<string>::iterator it = strs.begin(); it < strs.end(); it++ )
        cout << "\"" << *it << "\"" << endl;

    return 0;
}

Results

"please split"
"this"
"csv"
""
"line"
""

Answer 2

bool addEmptyLine = sText.back() == ',';

/* your code here */

if (addEmptyLine) m_vecFields.push_back("");

or

sText += ',';     // text1, text2,,

/* your code */

assert(m_vecFields.size() == 3);