Overcoming a basic problem with CSV parsing using the FasterCSV gem
I have found a CSV parsing issue with FasterCSV (1.5.0) which seems like a genuine bug, but which I'm hoping there's a workaround for.
Basically, adding a space after the separator (in my case a comma) when the fields are enclosed in quotes generates a MalformedCSVError.
Here's a simple example:
# No quotes on fields -- works fine
FasterCSV.parse_line("one,two,three")
=> ["one", "two", "three"]
# Quotes around fields with no spaces after separators -- works fine
FasterCSV.parse_line("\"one\",\"two\",\"three\"")
=> ["one", "two", "three"]
# Quotes around fields but with a space after the first separator -- fails!
FasterCSV.parse_line("\"one\", \"two\",\"three\"")
=> FasterCSV::MalformedCSVError: Illegal quoting on line 1.
Am I going mad, or is this a bug in FasterCSV?
Answer
The MalformedCSVError is correct here.
Leading/trailing spaces in CSV format are not ignored, they are considered part of a field. So this means you have started a field with a space, and then included unescaped double quotes in that field, which would cause the illegal quoting error.
Maybe this library is just more strict than others you have used.