Parsing CSV files

I've been looking for a simple CSV file parser in the SDK and couldn't find one, so I decided to write one so that I can use it to read in level data into the game. I like working with CSV files because I can use a spreadsheet program to maintain the data. The method takes a line of text and splits it up into an string array of phrases. The method handles double-quoted phrases as well as commas that appear within the phrases.

Update: I've updated the code based on feedback by Rich and KaleidoBalls, as well as fixed a memory leak. Thanks, all!

+ (NSMutableArray*)readLine:(NSString*)fileLine {

NSMutableArray* partsData = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];

NSMutableArray* phrase = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];

NSArray* tempPartsData = [fileLine componentsSeparatedByString:@","];

for (NSString* origPart in tempPartsData) {

NSString* part = [[NSString alloc] initWithString:[origPart stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]]];

if ([part length] == 0) {

[part release];

continue;

}

if ([part characterAtIndex:0] == '"' && [part characterAtIndex:[part length]-1] != '"') {

// Starting phrase

[phrase addObject:[part substringFromIndex:1]];

} else if ([part characterAtIndex:0] == '"' && [part length] == 1) {

// Just a lonely quotation mark--a phrase started or ended with a comma

[phrase addObject:@""];

if ([phrase count] == 0) {

// phrase begins with a comma

} else {

// phrase ends with a comma

[partsData addObject:[phrase componentsJoinedByString:@","]];

[phrase removeAllObjects];

}

} else if ([part characterAtIndex:0] == '"' && [part characterAtIndex:[part length]-1] == '"') {

// Complete quoted phrase

NSRange inner;

inner.location = 1;

inner.length = [part length] - 2;

[partsData addObject:[part substringWithRange:inner]];

} else if ([part characterAtIndex:[part length]-1] == '"') {

// Ending phrase

[phrase addObject:[part substringToIndex:[part length]-1]];

[partsData addObject:[phrase componentsJoinedByString:@","]];

[phrase removeAllObjects];

} else if ([phrase count] > 0) {

// Continuing phrase

[phrase addObject:part];

} else {

// Complete phrase

[partsData addObject:part];

}

[part release];

}

[phrase removeAllObjects];

[phrase release];

return [partsData autorelease];

}