[CSV-253] Handle absent values in input (null)

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Fix Version/s: 1.9.0
• Component/s: Parser
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Lars Bruun-Hansen
• Created: 28/Oct/19 20:53
• Updated: 08/Jul/21 16:38
• Resolved: 08/Jul/21 16:37

Description

The parser must be able to handle absent values in input and translate that into null as required. I see several tickets on this matter in the history, but none seem to have addressed the issue, at least not for parsing.

For this problem, I see a need to introduce a new term:

Definition: Absent value is when there are zero characters between field delimiters.

Specifically the aim is to be able to parse the following:

    "John",,"Doe"    // 2nd element is absent
    ,"AA",123        // 1st element is absent
    "John",90,       // 3rd element is absent
    "",,90           // 2nd element is absent (1st element isn't)

 

See also CSV-93 which I think never addressed the issue, probably because the reporter was happy with having the issue fixed for CSV output, not for parsing.

A PR is coming...

Issue Links

• relates to: CSV-254 POSTGRESQL_CSV cannot parse correctly (null vs zero-length string)
• relates to: CSV-93 Allow the handling of NULL values
• links to: GitHub Pull Request #51