Python - String.split() using delimiter ',', but there is price in string also using comma in thousand

Question

I am trying to use Python to parse a CSV file. I have a string like this:

"11/11/14","Buy","1,900","$10.40","-$19,760.00"

I want to parse it to into list like this

• element 1 -> "11/11/14"
• element 2 -> "Buy"
• element 3 -> "1,900"
• element 4 -> "$10.40"
• element 5 -> "-$19,760.00"

However, since there is comma delimiter in thousands number, the parse result is

• element 1 -> "11/11/14"
• element 2 -> "Buy"
• element 3 -> "1
• element 4 -> 900"
• element 5 -> "$10.40"
• element 6 -> "-$19
• element 7 -> 760.00"

Here is my code:

data = line.split(',')

Answer 1

You might want to look at the csv module in the python standard library. This will automatically take care of quoted strings within the elements of the CSV. For example:

with open('eggs.csv', 'rb') as csvfile:
    spamreader = csv.reader(csvfile, delimiter=',', quotechar='\"')
    for row in spamreader:
        print(', '.join(row))

This will load in a file and read it line by line, then print out the contents of each element separated by a comma. The result should match what you need.

Answer 2

use,

data = line.strip('"').split('","')

There's no "Quote" in prices.

Answer 3

Split on "\",\"" instead, then assuming there are no spaces in your delimiter it'll work, otherwise use regex to allow spaces.