# dequote

## Overview

The `dequote` statement is used to remove quotes from the start and end of column names and values 

## Syntax

**`dequote`***`dset.id`*

## Details

In cases where data from a 3rd-party system is formatted in such a way that the quoting in the CSV cannot be dealt with during  [import](/data-pipelines/transform/language/import.md) it is necessary to use [option noquote](/data-pipelines/transform/language/option.md) to treat the quotes as if they were data and import the file 'as is'.

The `dequote` statement can then be used to remove quotes after import. Only cell values (and column names) where there is a quote both at the start and end will be modified and any quotes present in the middle of those values will be left untouched.

The `dequote` statement will use whichever quote character is defined by [option quote](/data-pipelines/transform/language/option.md). The default is a double quote: `"`

## `Example`

The following example data cannot be imported without using [option noquote](/data-pipelines/transform/language/option.md) due to the presence of the unescaped embedded quotes in the `note` column on lines 2 and 7:

```
"account","account2","service","quantity","rate","note","interval","instance"
"Acc1","Subacc1","ServiceX","100","1","Embedded "quote"","monthly","Instance"
"Acc1","Subacc2","ServiceY","100","1","Inactive","daily","Instance2"
"Acc1","Subacc2","ServiceY","100","1","Inactive","daily","Instance2"
"Acc1","Subacc2","ServiceY","100","1","Active","daily","Instance2"
"Acc1","Subacc3","ServiceZ","100","1","Active","individually","Instance3"
"Acc1","Subacc3","ServiceZ","100","1","More ""quotes""","individually","Instance3"
"Acc1","Subacc3","ServiceZ","100","1","Active","individually","Instance3"
"Acc2","Subacc4","ServiceX","100","1","Inactive","monthly","Instance"
"Acc2","Subacc4","ServiceY","100","1","Inactive","daily","Instance2"
"Acc2","Subacc4","ServiceZ","100","1","Active","individually","Instance3"
```

The following script demonstrates the use of `option noquote` and `dequote` to import the data regardless:

```
option noquote
import system/extracted/example.csv source example alias data
dequote example.data
export example.data as DEQUOTED.CSV
```

Note that `dequote` will leave the embedded quotes untouched. This means that statements such as [replace](/data-pipelines/transform/language/replace.md) can be used to remove or modify them as required.

The resulting exported file from the example script above contains the following:

```
account,account2,service,quantity,rate,note,interval,instance
Acc1,Subacc1,ServiceX,100,1,Embedded "quote",monthly,Instance
Acc1,Subacc2,ServiceY,100,1,Inactive,daily,Instance2
Acc1,Subacc2,ServiceY,100,1,Inactive,daily,Instance2
Acc1,Subacc2,ServiceY,100,1,Active,daily,Instance2
Acc1,Subacc3,ServiceZ,100,1,Active,individually,Instance3
Acc1,Subacc3,ServiceZ,100,1,More ""quotes"",individually,Instance3
Acc1,Subacc3,ServiceZ,100,1,Active,individually,Instance3
Acc2,Subacc4,ServiceX,100,1,Inactive,monthly,Instance
Acc2,Subacc4,ServiceY,100,1,Inactive,daily,Instance2
Acc2,Subacc4,ServiceZ,100,1,Active,individually,Instance3
```


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