data merge in Indesign not matching .csv

wonderings

Well-known member
I am doing a data merge in indesign, we have a .csv supplied by the mail house we deal with. The supplied .csv has 944 records plus 1 line for headers. When I export to PDF I get a document with 946 pages. The beginning names match the csv file as well as the last names in the list. No idea where 2 extra pages are coming from. I did try on a blank document as well, also resaved the .csv file and still same results.

Anyone have this issue before or know what is going on here? MacOS 10.12.5 with Indesign CC, latest version and updates.
 
I would do a binary search. See if pg 472 matches the 472nd record. If so, check pg 708. If not, check page 236. You should be able to zero in on the first mismatch in this manner after checking ten pages. I suspect something about the records there will stand out as the cause.
 
It was some error from the mail house. Their customer adjusted the data file and sent it back to them. He did something wonky to it, but it was found and corrected. Not exactly sure what it was, some added lines or spaces or something.
 
Were there a few commas in the middle of fields? Or quote marks that were not escaped. I've seen that do weird stuff with csv and HP Smart Stream.

Text Wrangler is a great app for comparing two text files and finding the differences. It's notepad+ for Macs. Lots of great features for handling text or data.
 

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