A snippet for cleaning up a CSV file by removing whitespace. Messy, but works.

tidy_csv.rb

#!/bin/ruby
# 
# Parses a given CSV file, and writes it back out.
# The CSV library handles types nicer.
# 
# Author: Nick Charlton
# Date: 6/1/12
# License: MIT
# 

require 'csv'

array = []

CSV.foreach('sanitised_deal_data.csv') do |row|
  array << row
end

CSV.open('new_deal_data.csv', "wb") { |csv|
  array.each { |e| 
    csv << e.each { |a| 
      if (a != nil ) 
        # do some stuff to each type
        a.strip!
      end 
      }
  }
}