Python Parse CSV Correctly

If you don't want to use the CSV module you need to use a regular expression. Try this:

import re
regex = ",(?=(?:[^\"]*\"[^\"]*\")*[^\"]*$)"
string = '1997,Ford,E350,"Super, luxurious truck"'
array = re.split(regex, string)

print(array[3])
"Super, luxurious truck"

You should use the csv module:

import csv
reader = csv.reader(['1997,Ford,E350,"Super, luxurious truck"'], skipinitialspace=True)
for r in reader:
    print r

output:

['1997', 'Ford', 'E350', 'Super, luxurious truck']

The following method worked perfectly

d = {}
d['column1name'] = []
d['column2name'] = []
d['column3name'] = []

dictReader = csv.DictReader(open('filename.csv', 'rb'), fieldnames = ['column1name', 'column2name', 'column3name'], delimiter = ',', quotechar = '"')

for row in dictReader:
    for key in row:
        d[key].append(row[key])

The columns are stored in dictionary with the column names as the key.

You have to define the doublequote as the quotechar whithin the csv.reader() statement:

>>> with open(r'<path_to_csv_test_file>') as csv_file:
...     reader = csv.reader(csv_file, delimiter=',', quotechar='"')
...     print(reader.next())
... 
['1997', 'Ford', 'E350', 'Super, luxurious truck']
>>>