Скачать или смотреть How to Properly Handle Line Breaks in CSV Files for H2 Database Using CSVREAD

Learn how to resolve the line break issue in CSVREAD for H2 Database so that multi-line text is accurately interpreted from your CSV files.
---
This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/63494578/ asked by the user 'Scott Shipp' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/2132642/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/63494618/ provided by the user 'Scott Shipp' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/2132642/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

Visit these links for original content and any more details, such as alternate solutions, latest updates/developments on topic, comments, revision history etc. For example, the original title of the Question was: H2 DB CSVREAD does not translate line breaks

Also, Content (except music) licensed under CC BY-SA https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/l...
The original Question post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license, and the original Answer post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license.

If anything seems off to you, please feel free to write me at vlogize [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
---
Resolving Line Break Issues in H2 Database's CSVREAD

When working with the H2 Database, many developers appreciate its ability to use CSVREAD for importing data directly from CSV files—even creating in-memory databases for ease of testing and development. However, there’s a common hurdle that can disrupt your workflow: handling line breaks in the data.

If you’ve found that newline characters (\n) are being rendered as literal backslash and "n" in your imported data, don't worry—we’ll go through how to effectively manage this issue.

Understanding the Problem

The main complication arises when using CSVREAD to parse data that includes line breaks. By default, H2 treats the newline character as part of the data itself—leading to confusion and incorrect parsing.

Key Issues:

Line Breaks: Newline characters are not recognized properly.

Escape Characters: Attempting to escape line breaks with quotes can lead to unintended end of record issues.

To get data with line breaks accurately processed, we need to find a reliable format.

The Solution

Through trial and error, it has been established that you can include actual returns in your CSV file rather than trying to represent them with escape characters. Here’s how it works:

Steps to Create a Multi-Line Entry in CSV

Edit Your CSV File: Open your CSV file in a text editor where you can manually input entries.

Input Line Breaks Directly: Instead of typing \n, insert a return (line break) directly in the text where you want it to appear.

For example, an entry in your CSV should look like this:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Note: Each line break in the quoted text will be interpreted correctly by H2 database.

Additional Tips:

Ensure Quotes Are Used Properly: Make sure that your entire text for a cell is encapsulated in double quotes ("). This will format the content correctly for CSVREAD.

Testing: After making changes to the CSV file, perform a test import using CSVREAD to verify that the data imports as expected.

Conclusion

Handling line breaks in CSV files for H2 databases can be tricky, but by directly inputting returns in your data instead of using escape sequences, you can achieve the formatting you need. This approach simplifies the process and ensures that your multi-line text is accurately reflected in your in-memory database.

By following these steps, you can enjoy a smoother experience with CSV data imports in H2, leading to more reliable applications and streamlined testing.

If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to reach out!