loading MIMIC III into SQL Server [closed]

Question

I'd like to load the MIMIC III data into SQL Server because that's what I know best. The problem with the csv files is that some fields contain commas as part of the data. It would be far easier to work with a unique delimiter instead of trying to implement workarounds for comma data inside csv files. I've searched all of the MIMIC III csv files and the following characters are never used:

Ⅎ ❶ ① ↘

If the data could be extracted into flat files using a delimiter that never appears in the data, it would make it trivial to load the data into SQL Server. Using an alternate, well chosen delimiter character is a far more robust solution to the problem than continually implementing workarounds for csv files.

Answer 1

The data files conform to the RFC 4180 specification, which is as close as CSVs get to a formal standard.

Loading a RFC 4180 formatted CSV is trivial for many database systems. For example, the load command in Postgres is:

\copy ADMISSIONS FROM 'ADMISSIONS.csv' DELIMITER ',' CSV HEADER

Using a different delimiter is an option, but there would need to be a compelling reason to do so. Commas within text fields are handled by the standard CSV (RFC 4180) format.