LOAD DATA from CSV file where doublequote was used as the escape character
I have a bunch of CSV data that I need to load into a MySQL database. Well, CSV-ish, perhaps. (edit: actually, it looks like the stuff described in RFC 4180)
Each row is a list of comma-separated doublequoted strings. To escape any doublequotes that appear within a column value, double doublequotes are used. Backslashes are allowed to represent themselves.
For example, the line:
"", "\wave\", ""hello,"" said the vicar", "what are ""scare-quotes"" good for?", "I'm reading ""Bossypants"""
if parsed into JSON should be:
[ "", "\\wave\\", "\"hello,\" said the vicar", "what are \"scare-quotes\" good for?", "I'm reading \"Bossypants\"" ]
I'm trying to use the LOAD DATA to read the CSV in, but I'm running into some weird behaviour.
As an example, consider if I have a simple two column table
shell% mysql exampledb -e "describe person"
+-------+-----------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+-------+-----------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| ID | int(11) | YES | | NULL | |
| UID | char(255) | YES | | NULL | |
+-------+-----------+------+-----+---------+-------+
shell%
If the first non-header line of my input file ends on "":
shell% cat temp-1.csv
"ID","UID"
"9",""
"0","Steve the Pirate"
"1","\Alpha"
"2","Hoban ""Wash"" Washburne"
"3","Pastor Veal"
"4","Tucker"
"10",""
"5","Simon"
"6","Sonny"
"7","Wat\"
I can either load every non-header line but the first:
mysql> DELETE FROM person;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> LOAD DATA
LOCAL INFILE 'temp-1.csv'
INTO TABLE person
FIELDS
TERMINATED BY ','
ENCLOSED BY '"'
ESCAPED BY '"'
LINES
TERMINATED BY '\n'
IGNORE 1 LINES
;
Query OK, 9 rows affected (0.00 sec)
Records: 9 Deleted: 0 Skipped: 0 Warnings: 0
mysql> SELECT * FROM person;
+------+------------------------+
| ID | UID |
+------+------------------------+
| 0 | Steve the Pirate |
| 10 | |
| 1 | \Alpha |
| 2 | Hoban "Wash" Washburne |
| 3 | Pastor Veal |
| 4 | Tucker |
| 5 | Simon |
| 6 | Sonny |
| 7 | Wat\ |
+------+------------------------+
9 rows in set (0.00 sec)
Or I can load all lines including the header:
mysql> DELETE FROM person;
Query OK, 9 rows affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> LOAD DATA
LOCAL INFILE 'temp-1.csv'
INTO TABLE person
FIELDS
TERMINATED BY ','
ENCLOSED BY '"'
ESCAPED BY '"'
LINES
TERMINATED BY '\n'
IGNORE 0 LINES
;
Query OK, 11 rows affected, 1 warning (0.01 sec)
Records: 11 Deleted: 0 Skipped: 0 Warnings: 1
mysql> show warnings;
+---------+------+--------------------------------------------------------+
| Level | Code | Message |
+---------+------+--------------------------------------------------------+
| Warning | 1366 | Incorrect integer value: 'ID' for column 'ID' at row 1 |
+---------+------+--------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> SELECT * FROM person;
+------+------------------------+
| ID | UID |
+------+------------------------+
| 0 | UID |
| 9 | |
| 0 | Steve the Pirate |
| 10 | |
| 1 | \Alpha |
| 2 | Hoban "Wash" Washburne |
| 3 | Pastor Veal |
| 4 | Tucker |
| 5 | Simon |
| 6 | Sonny |
| 7 | Wat\ |
+------+------------------------+
11 rows in set (0.00 sec)
If no lines of my input file end on "":
shell% cat temp-2.csv
"ID","UID"
"0","Steve the Pirate"
"1","\Alpha"
"2","Hoban ""Wash"" Washburne"
"3","Pastor Veal"
"4","Tucker"
"5","Simon"
"6","Sonny"
"7","Wat\"
then I can either load no lines:
mysql> DELETE FROM person;
Query OK, 11 rows affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> LOAD DATA
LOCAL INFILE 'temp-2.csv'
INTO TABLE person
FIELDS
TERMINATED BY ','
ENCLOSED BY '"'
ESCAPED BY '"'
LINES
TERMINATED BY '\n'
IGNORE 1 LINES
;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
Records: 0 Deleted: 0 Skipped: 0 Warnings: 0
mysql> SELECT * FROM person;
Empty set (0.00 sec)
Or I can load all the lines including the header:
mysql> DELETE FROM person;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> LOAD DATA
LOCAL INFILE 'temp-2.csv'
INTO TABLE person
FIELDS
TERMINATED BY ','
ENCLOSED BY '"'
ESCAPED BY '"'
LINES
TERMINATED BY '\n'
IGNORE 0 LINES
;
Query OK, 9 rows affected, 1 warning (0.03 sec)
Records: 9 Deleted: 0 Skipped: 0 Warnings: 1
mysql> show warnings;
+---------+------+--------------------------------------------------------+
| Level | Code | Message |
+---------+------+--------------------------------------------------------+
| Warning | 1366 | Incorrect integer value: 'ID' for column 'ID' at row 1 |
+---------+------+--------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> SELECT * FROM person;
+------+------------------------+
| ID | UID |
+------+------------------------+
| 0 | UID |
| 0 | Steve the Pirate |
| 1 | \Alpha |
| 2 | Hoban "Wash" Washburne |
| 3 | Pastor Veal |
| 4 | Tucker |
| 5 | Simon |
| 6 | Sonny |
| 7 | Wat\ |
+------+------------------------+
9 rows in set (0.00 sec)
So now that I've discovered many ways to do it wrong, how can I use LOAD DATA to import the data from these files into my database?
Answer
According to the documentation for LOAD DATA, treating doubled double quotes as a double quote is the default:
If the field begins with the ENCLOSED BY character, instances of that character are recognized as terminating a field value only if followed by the field or line TERMINATED BY sequence. To avoid ambiguity, occurrences of the ENCLOSED BY character within a field value can be doubled and are interpreted as a single instance of the character. For example, if ENCLOSED BY '"' is specified, quotation marks are handled as shown here:
"The ""BIG"" boss" -> The "BIG" boss The "BIG" boss -> The "BIG" boss The ""BIG"" boss -> The ""BIG"" boss
So all I need to do is disable interpreting \ as an escape character, by using ESCAPED BY ''.
LOAD DATA
LOCAL INFILE 'temp-1.csv'
INTO TABLE person
FIELDS
TERMINATED BY ','
ENCLOSED BY '"'
ESCAPED BY ''
LINES
TERMINATED BY '\n'
IGNORE 1 LINES
;