Option quote_char

Specifies the character (String of length 1) used used to quote fields in both parsing and generating. This String will be transcoded into the data’s Encoding before use.

Default value:

CSV::DEFAULT_OPTIONS.fetch(:quote_char) # => "\"" (double quote)

This is useful for an application that incorrectly uses ' (single-quote) to quote fields, instead of the correct " (double-quote).

Using the default (double quote):

str = CSV.generate do |csv|
  csv << ['foo', 0]
  csv << ["'bar'", 1]
  csv << ['"baz"', 2]
end
str # => "foo,0\n'bar',1\n\"\"\"baz\"\"\",2\n"
ary = CSV.parse(str)
ary # => [["foo", "0"], ["'bar'", "1"], ["\"baz\"", "2"]]

Using ' (single-quote):

quote_char = "'"
str = CSV.generate(quote_char: quote_char) do |csv|
  csv << ['foo', 0]
  csv << ["'bar'", 1]
  csv << ['"baz"', 2]
end
str # => "foo,0\n'''bar''',1\n\"baz\",2\n"
ary = CSV.parse(str, quote_char: quote_char)
ary # => [["foo", "0"], ["'bar'", "1"], ["\"baz\"", "2"]]

Raises an exception if the String length is greater than 1:

# Raises ArgumentError (:quote_char has to be nil or a single character String)
CSV.new('', quote_char: 'xx')

Raises an exception if the value is not a String:

# Raises ArgumentError (:quote_char has to be nil or a single character String)
CSV.new('', quote_char: :foo)