Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:25:28 +0000 From: Adam Vande More <amvandemore@gmail.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: tab-delimited to csv Message-ID: <4999AF98.30404@gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <30696042-D9B5-4239-A560-00D20DBE5177@identry.com> References: <A1268853-0066-4604-AB9E-7D45E738BF32@identry.com> <20090216175556.GA53460@slackbox.xs4all.nl> <30696042-D9B5-4239-A560-00D20DBE5177@identry.com>
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John Almberg wrote: > > 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 > There is this: http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/arb/psion/ Have no idea if it complies or works as you want. But if you're dealing with just one so called "database" from Excel I would go with either checking the settings on the Excel export(in OO.org you can specify w/ or w/out quotes) as they may have missed the option. Or simply get the original file, open it in OO.org and do it from there as was basically suggested earlier. I would have thought something like would exist as it's certainly useful like dos2unix
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