How do I read and import piple delimited files to the database. File has data which has line break.

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How do i read and import piple delimited files to the database. File has data which has line break.

I tried SQL Sever File Import wizzard as well as CSV Helper Library. Could you please help me how do I read the data successfully which has line break.

example,

unique_id|name|notes
123|John|Subject: Meet the new interns
Dear team,
I'm happy to inform you of the commencement of our summer internship program. We recruited 10 interns
456|Rit|Subject: Meet the new interns
Dear team,
I'm happy to inform you of the commencement of our summer internship program. We recruited 10 interns

What I have tried:

SQL Server File Import, CSV Helper.

Posted 27-Mar-23 4:30am

istudent

Updated 27-Mar-23 15:18pm

PIEBALDconsult

v2

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PIEBALDconsult 27-Mar-23 18:32pm

First, see -- https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc4180/ . Send that URL to your colleague and see if he sees sense.
Second, if the sender refuses to format the file properly, then you may need to resort to desperate measures... Regular Expressions.

3 solutions

Solution 2

I am consuming the file and I have no control over the file. At this point I am trying to write my own logic. Thank you sir.

Posted 27-Mar-23 6:44am

istudent

Comments

PIEBALDconsult 27-Mar-23 18:30pm

Please do not make a comment as a solution.
Reply to the post or use use the Improve question button.

Solution 3

Behold the power of Regular Expressions!

C#

System.Text.RegularExpressions.MatchCollection mat = 
System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Matches 
( 
@"123|John|Subject: Meet the new interns
Dear team,
I'm happy to inform you of the commencement of our summer internship program. We recruited 10 interns
456|Rit|Subject: Meet the new interns
Dear team,
I'm happy to inform you of the commencement of our summer internship program. We recruited 10 interns
" 
,
  @"(^|\G)(?'ID'\d+)\|(?'Name'\w+)\|(?'Note'.*?)((\r\n(?=\d+\|))|$)"
,
  System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.Compiled
  |
  System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.ExplicitCapture
  |
  System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.Singleline
) ;

for ( int i = 0 ; i < mat.Count ; i++ )
{
  System.Console.WriteLine 
  (
    "\r\n{0}  ID:{1}  Name:{2} Note:{3}"
  ,
    i
  ,
    mat [ i ].Groups [ "ID"   ].Value 
  ,
    mat [ i ].Groups [ "Name" ].Value 
  ,
    mat [ i ].Groups [ "Note" ].Value 
  ) ;
}

Posted 27-Mar-23 15:18pm

PIEBALDconsult

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OriginalGriff · Accepted Answer · 2023-03-27T05:27:00

The problem is that it's "badly formed" CSV data - not the pipe character instead of comma, but the lack of double quotes to delimit multiline strings.

When you want to use "broken strings", you have to use double quotes around all string elements:

unique_id|name|notes
123|"John"|"Subject: Meet the new interns
Dear team,
I'm happy to inform you of the commencement of our summer internship program. We recruited 10 interns"
456|"Rit"|"Subject: Meet the new interns
Dear team,
I'm happy to inform you of the commencement of our summer internship program. We recruited 10 interns"

Otherwise the reader has no idea where the column data is meant to end - is it meant to be

"123"
"John"
"Subject: Meet the new interns
Dear team,
I'm happy to inform you of the commencement of our summer internship program. We recruited 10 interns"

"456"
"Rit"
"Subject: Meet the new interns
Dear team,
I'm happy to inform you of the commencement of our summer internship program. We recruited 10 interns"

Or

"123"
"John""Subject: Meet the new interns
Dear team,
I'm happy to inform you of the commencement of our summer internship program. We recruited 10 interns
456"

"Rit"
"Subject: Meet the new interns
Dear team,
I'm happy to inform you of the commencement of our summer internship program. We recruited 10 interns"
-null-

Most (non-trivial) CSV readers support this, as well as double quotes / column separators that appear in strings.