MalformedCSVError with rails CSV (FasterCSV) - ruby-on-rails
I'm having serious issues trying to parse some CSV in rails right now.
Basically my app gets a user to upload a CSV file. The app then converts the file to ensure it is in UTF-8 format, then attempts to parse it and process it. Whenever the app attempts to parse it however, I get the MalformedCSVError stating "Illegal quoting on line 1"
Now what I don't get, is if I copy the original file into a new document and save it, then I can parse it on a rails console without a problem.
If I attempt to parse the original file, it complains about an invalid character for UTF-8 encoding (the file isn't in UTF-8 hence the app converts it)
If I attempt to parse the file which the app has converted to UTF-8 and changed the line endings to LF, it fails to parse.
If I do a file diff between the version the app has produced, and the copy/paste version that I have made (which works) there are 0 differences so I really can't figure out why one is parsable, and one is not.
Any suggestions? My app is processing the file as follows :
def create
#survey = Survey.new(params[:survey])
# Now we need to try and convert this to UTF-8 if it isn't already
encoded = File.read(#survey.survey_data.current_path)
encoding = CharlockHolmes::EncodingDetector.detect(encoded)
# We've got a guess at the encoding,
# so we can try and convert it but it
# may still fail so we need to handle
# that
begin
re_encoded = CharlockHolmes::Converter.convert(encoded, encoding[:encoding], 'UTF-8')
re_encoded = re_encoded.gsub(/\r\n?/, "\n")
# Now replace the uploaded file
File.open(#survey.survey_data.current_path, 'w') { |f|
f.write(re_encoded)
}
rescue ArgumentError
puts "UH OH!!!!!"
end
puts "#{#survey.survey_data.current_path}"
#parsed = CSV.read(#survey.survey_data.current_path)
end
The file uploading gem is CarrierWave if that makes any difference.
Please can someone help me as this is driving me insane!
Edit
The error says it's on line 1. Line 1 (assuming it doesn't index from 0) is
"Survey","RD","GarrysMDs","NigelsMDs","PaulsMDs","StephensMDs","BrinleyJ","CarolineP","DaveL","GrantR","GregS","Kent","NeilC","NicolaP","AndyC","DarrenS","DeanB","KarenF","PaulR","RichardF","SteveG","BrianG","GordonA","NickD","NickR","NickT","RayL","SimonH","EdmondH","JasonF","MikeS","SamanthaN","TimB","TravisF","AlanS","Q1","Q2","Q3","Q4","Q5","Q6","Q7","Q8PM","Q8N","Q9","Q10","Q11","Q12","Q13","Q14","Q15","Q16PM","Q16N","Q17PM","Q17N","Q18PM","Q18N","Q19","Q20","Q21","Q22","comment","Q23.1","Q23.2","Q23.3","TQ23.1","TQ23.2","VPM","VN","VQ1","VQ2","VQ3","VQ4","VQ5","VQ6","VQ7","VQ8N","VQ8PM","VQ9","VQ10","VQ11","VQ12","VQ13","VQ14","VQ15","VQ16","VQ16N","VQ16PM","VQ17","VQ17N","VQ17PM","VQ18","VQ18N","VQ18PM","VQ19","VQ20","VQ21","VQ22","VQ23.1","VQ23.2","VQ23.3","VRD","XQ16","XQ17","XQ18"
Well that was irritating!
Turns out the file had a BOM which was causing the CSV parser to break. Loading the file with
CSV.open("path/to/file.csv", "rb:bom|encoding")
allowed it to parse it perfectly! So annoyed how long it took to track down but it's now working and with no need to convert to UTF-8 now either!
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I'm writing a Rails app that allows the user to upload TSV (Tab-separated values) files to be parsed on the server. Those files are encoded in UTF-16. All goes fine in local, but when I try to open the file with such encoding on Heroku, I'm getting a warning that says warning: Unsupported encoding utf-16 ignored. When later I try to read such file, it obviously fails stating invalid byte sequence in UTF-8. See an excerpt of the code below: File.open(params[:batch_import][:file].path, 'r:utf-16') do |f| #recipients = Recipient.from_tsv(f.read) end Is there any walkaround that I can do?
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I am using:
Ruby 1.9.2
Rails 2.3.8
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I get this error sometimes "invalid byte sequence in UTF-8" when I read contents from a file. Note - this only happens when there are some special characters in the string. I have tried opening the file without "r:UTF-8", but still get the same error.
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Contents of the file:
# encoding: UTF-8
290919,"SE","26","Sk‰l","",59.4500,17.9500,, # this errors out
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Environment:
Rails v3.0.3
ruby 1.9.2p0 (2010-08-18 revision 29036) [x86_64-darwin10.5.0]
Ruby has a notion of an external encoding and internal encoding for each file. This allows you to work with a file in UTF-8 in your source, even when the file is stored in a more esoteric format. If your default external encoding is UTF-8 (which it is if you're on Mac OS X), all of your file I/O is going to be in UTF-8 as well. You can check this using File.open('file').external_encoding. What you're doing when you opening your file and passing "r:UTF-8" is forcing the same external encoding that Ruby is using by default.
Chances are, your source document isn't in UTF-8 and those non-ascii characters aren't mapping cleanly to UTF-8 (if they were, you would either get the correct characters and no error, and if they mapped by incorrectly, you would get incorrect characters and no error). What you should do is try to determine the encoding of the source document, then have Ruby transcode the document on read, like so:
File.open(file, "r:windows-1251:utf-8").each_line { |line| puts line.strip(",") }
If you need help determining the encoding of the source, give this Python library a whirl. It's based on the automatic charset detection fallback that was in Seamonkey/Mozilla (and is possibly still in Firefox).
If you want to change your file encoding, you can use gem 'charlock holmes'
https://github.com/brianmario/charlock_holmes
$require 'charlock_holmes/string'
content = File.read('test2.txt')
if !content.is_utf8?
detection = CharlockHolmes::EncodingDetector.detect(content)
utf8_encoded_content = CharlockHolmes::Converter.convert content, detection[:encoding], 'UTF-8'
end
Then you can save your new content in a temp file and overwrite your original file.
Hope this help.