#!/usr/bin/env python

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

"""solution to the csv parsing problem, handling quotes and numric values"""

def convert_to_number(value):

"""converts the passed over string to a number, if possible"""

try:

return int(value)

except ValueError:

pass

return value

def csv_parsing(csv):

"""returns list of string/numeric csv values"""

count = 0

values = []

pos = 0

while pos < len(csv):

if csv[pos] == ',': # skip comma from previous iteration

pos += 1

values.insert(count, '')

while pos < len(csv) and csv[pos] != ',':

if csv[pos] == '"' or csv[pos] == "'": # handle quoted strings

first_quote = pos

pos += 1

while pos < len(csv) and csv[pos] != csv[first_quote]:

values[count] += csv[pos]

pos += 1

else:

values[count] += csv[pos]

pos += 1

#if the value is numeric, this will convert it.

values[count] = convert_to_number(values[count])

count += 1

pos += 1

return values