Lab Case · Blocked

Rows with too few and too many CSV fields

The checker can identify the exact structural mismatch but cannot know what missing or extra business data was intended.

Reproducible fixture
Issue: row widthOutcome: repair blockedHeader width: 3

Fixture

name,price,sku
Blue Shirt,19.99,SKU-001
Red Shirt,24.50
Green Shirt,15.00,SKU-003,EXTRA

Expected evidence

RowExpectedFoundMeaning
332One field is absent or a separator is missing.
434An extra delimiter/value exists, or quoting is wrong.

Why CSVFixLab refuses to fill the row

The second data row does not say which field is missing. Even if sku looks like the obvious choice to a human, a generic repair engine cannot safely assume that without source-system knowledge. The fourth row has the opposite problem: deleting EXTRA would also be an unsupported business-data decision.

Run the fixture

Confirm both mismatched rows are listed.

Check nearby quote errors

A malformed quote can produce width mismatches as a secondary symptom.

Correct from source data

Use the originating database or spreadsheet to determine the intended values.

Re-run the checker

The corrected file should have the same field count on every non-empty row.

Decision: diagnosis is safe; automatic reconstruction is not.