Parsing Custom Delimited Log Files in Ruby - Handling Inconsistent Quoting
I'm wondering if anyone has experience with I'm converting an old project and I'm trying to figure out I'm learning this framework and I'm attempting to parse a custom delimited log file in Ruby where fields are separated by semicolons and some fields can contain commas that are enclosed in quotes... Here’s a sample of the log file: ``` info;"User, John";2023-01-01;"Action performed" warn;"User, Jane";2023-01-02;"Failed login attempt" info;"User, Bob";2023-01-03;"Action performed" ``` The scenario I'm working with is that some fields can have quoted strings that contain commas, but other fields do not. I initially tried using the `CSV` class in Ruby with a custom separator, but it doesn't seem to handle the inconsistent quoting well. Here’s what I’ve tried: ```ruby require 'csv' log_data = File.read('logs.txt') rows = CSV.parse(log_data, col_sep: ';', quote_char: '"') rows.each do |row| puts row.inspect end ``` When I run this code, I get unexpected splitting like this: ``` "User, John" "Action performed" ``` instead of getting the full entries like "User, John" as a single field. I believe the scenario stems from the internal handling of quotes and commas within the CSV parser. I’ve tried various configurations, but nothing seems to yield the expected results. Is there a better way to approach this parsing task in Ruby? Would using a regex be a more effective solution, or is there a library that can better handle this format? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated! The project is a mobile app built with Ruby. Any pointers in the right direction? I'm working on a service that needs to handle this. What's the best practice here?