# Multiple separators when importing CSV files in logstash
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/multiple-separators-when-importing-csv-files-in-logstash/177722
**Category:** Logstash
**Created:** [April 20, 2019, 5:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/multiple-separators-when-importing-csv-files-in-logstash/177722 "2019-04-20T17:29:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@flavienbwk](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/flavienbwk)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2019, 5:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/multiple-separators-when-importing-csv-files-in-logstash/177722/1 "2019-04-20T17:29:56Z")
Hello,
I have a bunch of CSV files I want to import with each, data of this format :
`first_name;last_name`
The problem is that sometimes, the format will be :
`first_name:last_name` (the `;` is `:`)
Is there a way to provide multiple separators in the logstash conf file or will I be forced to process the file before sending it to logstash ?
Maybe it is possible to pass a regular expression in parameter ?
Thank you.
---
### Author:  [@Badger](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Badger)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2019, 6:14pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/multiple-separators-when-importing-csv-files-in-logstash/177722/2 "2019-04-20T18:14:35Z")
If there are only two fields then you could use a grok filter to parse it
```
grok { match => { "message" => "^(?[^:;]+)[:;]%{GREEDYDATA:second}" } }
```
If there are multiple fields it might be better to change the : to ;
```
mutate { gsub => ["message", ":", ";"] }
```
---
### Author:  [@flavienbwk](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/flavienbwk)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2019, 6:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/multiple-separators-when-importing-csv-files-in-logstash/177722/3 "2019-04-20T18:34:58Z")
Thank you for your answer, what about if the second field can contain a ":" or a ";" as its first character ?
---
### Author:  [@Badger](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Badger)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2019, 6:50pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/multiple-separators-when-importing-csv-files-in-logstash/177722/4 "2019-04-20T18:50:40Z")
The grok will still work. It divides the string at the first occurence of either ; or : regardless of what comes after.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2019, 6:50pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/multiple-separators-when-importing-csv-files-in-logstash/177722/5 "2019-05-18T18:50:41Z")
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