std::getline for a comma delimited table file with quotations around certain fields

Question

I'm basically running the following code. This code goes through line by line and grabs the different fields of a generic comma-delimited table file. My problem is that sometimes the "title" field can have commas in it. When it does, it's surrounded by quotation marks like so: "this, this is my title". But when my code sees the comma, it just treats everything after it like the next field. Not all titles have quotes around them, only the ones with commas in them. My problem is that I have no idea how to make the code check for this.... How can I get my code to check for this issue?

Thanks a lot, yall. It kind of means a lot to my gainful employment!

while (getline(BookLine, ImpLine, '\n'))  // Get each line
{
   // create a string stream from the standard string
   std::istringstream StrLine(ImpLine);

   std::string
   bookNumber,
   chk,
   author,
   title,
   edition;

   // Parse lines
   std::getline(StrLine,bookNumber,',');
   std::getline(StrLine,chk,',');
   std::getline(StrLine,author,',');
   std::getline(StrLine,title,',');            
   std::getline(StrLine,edition,',');
}

Answer 1

Doing this well is kind of complex. Basically, you read the first character. If it's not a quote, then you read to the next comma. If it is a quote, you read to the next quote. Then you peek at the next character, and see if it's another quote. If it is, you read to the next quote again, and add what you read onto the end of what you read the first time, but without one of the quotes (i.e., a quote in a quoted string is represented by two consecutive quote marks). When you get to a quote that's followed by something other than a quote (should normally be a comma) you're reached the end of that field.