/LFCleaner

Utility to strip stray linefeeds from CSV records

Primary LanguageCGNU General Public License v3.0GPL-3.0

Note:

Using linux 'awk' it is easy to determine the number of fields

in a record.

LFCleaner

Utility to strip bogus linefeeds from CSV records and outputs repaired data
We pass a lot of CSV data in the format of:

pattern;[data_1];[data_2];[data_4];[comment-1];LF (linefeed)
pattern;[data_1];[data_2];[data_5];[comment-2];LF (linefeed)
pattern;[data_1];[data_3];[data_6];[comment-3];LF (linefeed)

Every now and then, a user puts in an extra LF (linefeed) in the [comment] field like:

pattern;[data_1];[data_2];[data_4];[comment-1];LF (linefeed)
pattern;[data_1];[data_2];[data_5];[comLF (bogus linefeed in comment field) 
ment-2];LF (linefeed)
pattern;[data_1];[data_3];[data_6];[comment-3];LF (linefeed)

This breaks the receiving end.
It doesn't know how to deal with [com(LF)ment-2] instead of [comment-2].
This C utility can strip those bogus linefeeds, as long as every CSV record has a distinct heading.
Exitcode = EXIT_FAILURE if a bogus linefeed is found.

Errors / warnings are sent to stderr.

The output is the repaired input.