SH-CSV(1) General Commands Manual SH-CSV(1)

csv, getcsv - parse ``comma-separated values''

load csv

getcsv command
${csv list}

Csv is a loadable module for sh (1) that provides the facility to parse and generate ``comma-separated value'' lists, a widely used data exchange format. Data in this format is usually in the form of a table, each row of which contains one or more items, each separated by a comma (,). Items that contain a comma or a newline are surrounded with double-quotes ("). A double-quote within an item is represented by a pair of double-quotes. Two primitives are provided:

Getcsv works similiarly to getlines in sh-std (1). It reads from the standard input, and for every line read, invokes command with $line set to the items found on that line (one element per item). Getcsv recognises the usual loop break and continue exceptions.
${csv}
Csv yields a single element containing all the items in list, comma-separated and quoted as necessary.

/appl/cmd/sh/csv.b

sh (1), sh-std (1)

Empty lines are ambiguous: csv treats an empty line as containing a single, empty element; there is thus no way of representing a line containing no elements at all.