Nevermind the previous version, I've solved a few bugs in it (like unquoted numbers and correctly handling blank fields). Here's my current version: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ import Parsec import System.IO -- Sometimes unquoted numbers appear number :: Parser String number = do f <- (char '-' <|> digit) fs <- many digit return (f:fs) -- A cell can be a quoted value, a number or empty cell :: Parser String cell = do { char '\"'; w <- (many1 (noneOf "\"")); char '\"' "end of cell"; return w; } <|> number <|> return "" -- Empty cell -- A comma of course separator :: Parser Char separator = char ',' -- Group of cells with a separator cells :: Parser [String] cells = sepBy1 cell separator -- For extracting comma delimited values of a cell contents :: Parser [String] contents = sepBy1 (many (noneOf ",")) separator -- Rows are a set of cells followed by a newline, -- This is followed by more rows or nothing rows :: Parser [[String]] rows = do c <- cells newline do { cs <- rows; return (c:cs); } <|> return [c] -- Comman Separated Values, set of rows followed by eof csv :: Parser [[String]] csv = do r <- rows eof return r -- Main routine, for testing main :: IO () main = do result <- parseFromFile csv "sb.txt" case (result) of Left err -> print err Right sb -> print sb