suspected csvread bug

[David Bateman]

Julian Briggs wrote:
> Dear Maintainer(s) of Octave package io,
>
> I find cvsread mishandles commas embedded in text data, such as headings.
> This occurs even when I skip the columns/rows containing such headings.
> Presumably the problem is in dlmread.
>
> Here is a demonstration of the issue.
> Reading file, "csvread_demo2.csv" with content (saved as cvs from Excel
> spreadsheet):
>
> h11,h12,h13,h14
> h21,1,2,3
> "h31,c",4,5,6
> h41,7,8,9
> h51,10,11,12
>
> thus:
>
> path_sup     = strcat( Templates, "csvread_demo2.csv" ) 
> disp("\nMishandles ebedded comma in matrix row 2, col 1)")
> disp("Reading with: csvread( path_sup, 1, 1)")
> sup = csvread( path_sup, 1, 1);
> disp("size:"), disp(size(sup))
> disp("sup:"), disp(sup);
>
> emits:
>
> Mishandles ebedded comma in matrix row 2, col 1
> Reading with: csvread( path_sup, 1, 1)
> size:
>    4   4
> sup:
>     1    2    3    0
>     0    4    5    6
>     7    8    9    0
>    10   11   12    0
>   
>> Exit code: 0
>>     
>
> In the above cvsread appears to have read "h31,c" as 2 elements.
>
>
> My details: 
> pkg list
> Package Name  | Version | Installation directory
> --------------+---------+-----------------------
>           io *|   1.0.5 |
> C:\ProgramFiles\Octave\share\octave\packages\io-1.0.5
> version
> ans = 3.0.0
> Running on Windows XP (I'd prefer Ubuntu Linux).
>
> I am using Octave in  university research project to apply (economics)
> input-output analysis to carbon footprinting.  I am keen to use Octave so a
> timely fix would be much appreciated.
>
> Comments, workarounds and fixes welcome.
>
> Thanks
>
> Julian
>   
Hey it appears that matlab can't read this file at all.. With
Matlab2007b I get

 x = csvread('test.csv')
??? Error using ==> textscan
Mismatch between file and format string.
Trouble reading number from file (row 1, field 1) ==> h11,h

Error in ==> csvread at 52
    m=dlmread(filename, ',', r, c);

With Octave 3.0 + octave-forge or Octave 3.1.x I get

 x = csvread("test.csv")
x =

    0    0    0    0    0
    0    1    2    3    0
    0    0    4    5    6
    0    7    8    9    0
    0   10   11   12    0

Yes it is ignoring the quotes in reading the comma, though I don't think
this is a reasonable file format to expect csvread to accept.

D.



-- 
David Bateman                                David.Bateman at motorola.com
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