Re: multiline CSV fields

>
>
> Greg Stark wrote:
>
> >Personally I find the current CSV support inadequate. It seems
pointless to
> >support CSV if it can't load data exported from Excel, which seems like
the
> >main use case.
> >
> >
>
> OK, I'm starting to get mildly annoyed now. We have identified one
> failure case connected with multiline fields. Even in the multiline
> case, I expect that the embedded newlines will usually match those of
> the CSV file, in which case there will be no failure. It's a very big
> step from there to the far more general "can't load data exported from
> Excel". Or did you have some other limitation in mind?
>
> FWIW, I don't make a habit of using multiline fields in my spreadsheets
> - and some users I have spoken to aren't even aware that you can have
> them at all.
>

I am normally more of a lurker on these lists, but I thought you had
better know
that when we developed CSV import/export for an application at my last
company
we discovered that Excel can't always even read the CSV that _it_ has
output!
(With embedded newlines a particular problem)

It is far more reliable if you output your data as an HTML table, in which
case it
practically always gets it right. Perhaps Postgres could support this as
an import/
export mechanism as I have found it to be far less error prone than CSV?

Cheers,
Ben Young

> cheers
>
> andrew
>
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