Bug report #19659
QGIS3: export to CSV with trailing comma
| Status: | Closed | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Priority: | Normal | ||
| Assignee: | - | ||
| Category: | Data Provider/OGR | ||
| Affected QGIS version: | 3.3(master) | Regression?: | No |
| Operating System: | Easy fix?: | No | |
| Pull Request or Patch supplied: | No | Resolution: | up/downstream |
| Crashes QGIS or corrupts data: | No | Copied to github as #: | 27484 |
Description
When exporting only one attribute field to CSV from a multi-field dataset, the header gets a trailing comma [separator]. This makes trouble on some CSV parsers, which are interpreting the header.
How to reproduce:
1. Load a dataset, which has more than one attribute fields.
2. Go to "Save vector layer as".
3. Unselect all but one fields and export to CSV.
4. Open the CSV with a text-editor and check the header.
Expected:
No trailing separator in the header line.
This affects at least QGIS 3.2
History
#1
Updated by Jürgen Fischer almost 6 years ago
- Category changed from Processing/Core to Data Provider/OGR
#2
Updated by Giovanni Manghi almost 6 years ago
- Status changed from Open to Feedback
- Operating System deleted (
Microsoft Windows 7, 64-bit)
Does the same on 2.18?
#3
Updated by Andrea Giudiceandrea almost 6 years ago
I can reproduce the bug with QGIS 2.18.23.
#4
Updated by Andrea Giudiceandrea almost 6 years ago
I can reproduce the bug with QGIS 2.18.23.
#5
Updated by Andrea Giudiceandrea almost 6 years ago
QGIS relies on OGR CSV driver in order to save a layer as CSV file.
The OGR driver info page at https://www.gdal.org/drv_csv.html states that: "CSV files have one line for each feature (record) in the layer (table). The attribute field values are separated by commas. At least two fields per line must be present."
It seems that the OGR CSV Layer class adds a "fake second blank field" if a single column csv file has to be written, thus the trailing comma, for "valid single column files" creation.
See:
https://github.com/OSGeo/gdal/commit/92dcffccf8d91696e06b047f275a54a0b7ef0308
https://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/ticket/4824
https://github.com/OSGeo/gdal/blob/master/gdal/ogr/ogrsf_frmts/csv/ogrcsvlayer.cpp#L2219-L2226
Tobias, which CSV parsers have troubles with trailing comma?
#6
Updated by Giovanni Manghi almost 6 years ago
Andrea Giudiceandrea wrote:
QGIS relies on OGR CSV driver in order to save a layer as CSV file.
The OGR driver info page at https://www.gdal.org/drv_csv.html states that: "CSV files have one line for each feature (record) in the layer (table). The attribute field values are separated by commas. At least two fields per line must be present."
then we should close this, agree?
#7
Updated by Tobias Wendorff almost 6 years ago
Andrea Giudiceandrea wrote:
Tobias, which CSV parsers have troubles with trailing comma?
I've used a Python parser, which creates XLSX files. I need to go though my files to find it again. Actually, it tried to read the header after the first comma to assign a new field, but it was empty. That broke the process.
I've got tons of CSV files, which have one column/field only. Since CSV is a convention and not standard, this might be OGR specific.
I have to take care of this and remove the leading comma in post-processing. Can be closed for the moment.
#8
Updated by Giovanni Manghi almost 6 years ago
- Resolution set to up/downstream
- Status changed from Feedback to Closed