Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2009 13:10:47 -0500 From: John Almberg <jalmberg@identry.com> To: Roland Smith <rsmith@xs4all.nl> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: tab-delimited to csv Message-ID: <30696042-D9B5-4239-A560-00D20DBE5177@identry.com> In-Reply-To: <20090216175556.GA53460@slackbox.xs4all.nl> References: <A1268853-0066-4604-AB9E-7D45E738BF32@identry.com> <20090216175556.GA53460@slackbox.xs4all.nl>
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On Feb 16, 2009, at 12:55 PM, Roland Smith wrote: > On Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 11:55:50AM -0500, John Almberg wrote: >> Can anyone suggest a way to convert a tab-delimited file to csv using >> standard unix utilities? I could whip up a Ruby script to do it, but > > As long as the files don't contain commas themselves, Right, that's the tricky bit. I could use tr otherwise. > >> I hate to reinvent the wheel. > > I'd whip up that script. There is a shareware tab2csv utility for > windows for $49.95: http://www.download32.com/info-pack-com-tab2csv- > i31827.html I'm working on it, right now. I also saw that windows utility, but doesn't help me much. > > OTOH, if you have a spreadsheet program like Gnumeric or OpenOffice > installed, you might be able to script those to import from tab- > delimited > and export to CSV. Admittedly that is like using a nuke to kill a fly. Actually, the problem arises because I have a client who is exporting a 'database' file from Excel 2000 (don't ask), to .csv, and Excel is so stupid that it is not putting quotes around a field that contains commas. Duh. Excel seems to export to tab-delimited format without making any fatal errors, but I need a real .csv file for import. Thus my need to convert from tab to (real) csv. -- John
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