[Csv] skipfinalspace

[Tom Brown]

(Continuing thread started at
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/csv/2008-October/000688.html)
On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 16:46, Andrew McNamara
<andrewm at object-craft.com.au>wrote:

> >I downloaded the 2.6 source tar ball, but is it too late for new features
> to
> >get into versions <3?
>
> Yep.
>
> >How would you feel about adding the following tests to
> Lib/test/test_csv.py
> >and getting them to pass?
> >
> >Also http://www.python.org/doc/2.5.2/lib/csv-fmt-params.html says
> >"*skipinitialspace *When True, whitespace immediately following the
> >delimiter is ignored."
> >but my tests show whitespace at the start of any field is ignored,
> including
> >the first field.
>
> I suspect (but I haven't checked) that it means "after the delimiter and
> before any quoted field (or some variation on that).


I agree that whitespace after the delimiter and before any quoted field is
skipped. Also whitespace after the start of the line and before any quoted
field is skipped.


>
>
> All of the "dialect" parameters are there to allow parsing of a specific
> common form of CSV file. Because there is no formal definition of the
> format, the module simply aims to parse (and produce the same result)
> as common applications such as Excel and Access. Changing the behaviour
> in any non-backwards compatible way is sure to get screams of anguish
> from many users. Even when the behaviour appears to be a bug, you can
> be sure people are counting on it working like that.


skipinitialspace defaults to false and by the same logic skipfinalspace
should default to false to preserve compatibility with the csv module in
2.6. On the other hand, the switch to version 3 is as good a time as any to
break backwards compatibility to adopt something that works better for new
users.

Based on my experience parsing several hundred csv generated by many
different people I think it would be nice to at least have a dialect that is
excel + skipinitialspace=True + skipfinalspace=True.


>
> BTW, this discussion probably should move to python-dev.
>
> --
> Andrew McNamara, Senior Developer, Object Craft
> http://www.object-craft.com.au/
>
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