Multiple entries in single column

[ostelaymetaule]

Hallo there!
II would like to suggest a new feature.
Assumed there are a csv File with the semicolon as a delimiter. But some of the fields includes multiple values delimited with other signs. Example:

• Alex;Kovalsky;19.02.2015;50.1
• john;Smith;04.04.2015:13.02.2014;50.1:16.3
• Max;Mustermann;;

I would expect such file to be parsed into

first_name:       Alex
last_name:       Kovalsky
Checkout Date: 19.02.2015
Checkout Sum: 50.1

first_name:       john
last_name:       Smith
Checkout Date: 04.04.2015
Checkout Sum: 50.1

first_name:       john
last_name:       Smith
Checkout Date: 13.02.2014
Checkout Sum: 16.3

first_name:       Max
last_name:       Mustermann
Checkout Date: null
Checkout Sum: 0.0

Or with arrays:

first_name:       Alex
last_name:       Kovalsky
Checkout Date[]: {19.02.2015}
Checkout Sum[]: {50.1}

first_name:       john
last_name:       Smith
Checkout Date[]: {04.04.2015, 13.02.2014}
Checkout Sum[]: {50.1, 16.3}

first_name:       Max
last_name:       Mustermann
Checkout Date[]: {}
Checkout Sum[]: {}

[mcavigelli]

Hello Alexander

I don't think this is a good idea, for several reasons:

• Filehelpers is thought for "describing a class that maps to each record". With your idea you basically have two classes / records: person and checkout date.
• Having two delimiters per line will lead to conflicts: what if a name contains a ":". Is that a delimiter or a value? In case of a value, how to escape it?
• An implementation would be very complicated.

I see two possibilities for your problem:

• You do the post processing of checkout dates yourself and do a projection of person to checkout dates.
• You choose Filehelpers and save the data as master / detail data. Again the projection must be done by yourself. The master / detail approach is documented http://filehelpers.com/example_masterdetail.html and http://filehelpers.com/example_masterdetail2.html.

Do you think any of the approaches would solve your problem?

Matthias

[ostelaymetaule]

Hello Matthias,
thank you for the answer.
I have solved this with reading the dates and the sum values into string fields and then in the AfterEvent() parse this into list property which is marked with [FieldNotInFile] attribute. myclass has a field defining date and a field defining double. So it looks like dictionary.

So its kinda the first method.
Should i close the issue then?

Best regards,
Alexander

[mcavigelli]

Hi Alexander

I have not been thinking about a solution with the AfterEvent event.
Congratulations for having solved the problem in such a FileHelper like way.

Matthias