newlines in double quotes in reading CSV in python -

i have csv file in following format:

"4931286","lotion","new york","bright color, yellow 5" long 20% nylon" "931286","shampoo","new york","dark, yellow 10" long 20% nylon" "3931286","conditioner","la","bright color, yellow 5" long 50% nylon" 

the above data should read 3 rows 4 columns: id, product name, location, , description. can seen, there newlines within descriptions each row.

i've been searching other related stackoverflow questions none of solutions seem solve issue.

here attempt:

from stringio import stringio file = stringio("""4931286","lotion","new york","bright color, yellow\n   5" long 20% nylon""")  row in csv.reader(file,quotechar='"', delimiter=',',quoting=csv.quote_all, skipinitialspace=true):  print row 

and results following:

['4931286"', 'lotion', 'new york', 'bright color, yellow 5 long']    ['20% nylon'] 

but, want

['4931286"', 'lotion', 'new york', 'bright color, yellow 5 long 20% nylon'] 

how achieve this? there should way in python?

the data not in csv format.

" in csv must escaped \ "bright color, yellow\n 5\" long 20% nylon".

if " used inches (prefixed number) try this:

import re data = re.sub(r'([0-9])"(?![,\n])', r'\1\\"', data) 

this regex replace " \" if prefixed number

and parse data csv.reader

edit: changed regex because of maxu's suggestion.