3 added 44 characters in body edited Jan 19 '18 at 18:04 Alexey Popkov 39.9k44 gold badges113113 silver badges274274 bronze badges Option "RepeatedSeparators" -> False solves the problem: file = "\"5\";\"8\";\"2803\"; \"\";\"6\";\"2793\";"; ImportString[file, "Table", "FieldSeparators" -> ";", "RepeatedSeparators" -> False]  {{5, 8, 2803, ""}, {"", 6, 2793, ""}}  Although I would consider the default behavior as a bug: the element "" (substring "\"\"" of the whole file) shouldn't be interpreted as an absence of a field, it is just an empty string "" which is a perfectly valid field! Option "RepeatedSeparators" -> False solves the problem: file = "\"5\";\"8\";\"2803\"; \"\";\"6\";\"2793\";"; ImportString[file, "Table", "FieldSeparators" -> ";", "RepeatedSeparators" -> False]  {{5, 8, 2803, ""}, {"", 6, 2793, ""}}  Although I would consider the default behavior as a bug: the element "" shouldn't be interpreted as an absence of a field, it is just an empty string which is a perfectly valid field! Option "RepeatedSeparators" -> False solves the problem: file = "\"5\";\"8\";\"2803\"; \"\";\"6\";\"2793\";"; ImportString[file, "Table", "FieldSeparators" -> ";", "RepeatedSeparators" -> False]  {{5, 8, 2803, ""}, {"", 6, 2793, ""}}  Although I would consider the default behavior as a bug: the element "" (substring "\"\"" of the whole file) shouldn't be interpreted as an absence of a field, it is just an empty string "" which is a perfectly valid field! 2 added 189 characters in body edited Jan 19 '18 at 17:36 Alexey Popkov 39.9k44 gold badges113113 silver badges274274 bronze badges Option "RepeatedSeparators" -> False solves the problem: file = "\"5\";\"8\";\"2803\"; \"\";\"6\";\"2793\";"; ImportString[file, "Table", "FieldSeparators" -> ";", "RepeatedSeparators" -> False]  {{5, 8, 2803, ""}, {"", 6, 2793, ""}}  Although I would consider the default behavior as a bug: the element "" shouldn't be interpreted as an absence of a field, it is just an empty string which is a perfectly valid field! Option "RepeatedSeparators" -> False solves the problem: file = "\"5\";\"8\";\"2803\"; \"\";\"6\";\"2793\";"; ImportString[file, "Table", "FieldSeparators" -> ";", "RepeatedSeparators" -> False]  {{5, 8, 2803, ""}, {"", 6, 2793, ""}}  Option "RepeatedSeparators" -> False solves the problem: file = "\"5\";\"8\";\"2803\"; \"\";\"6\";\"2793\";"; ImportString[file, "Table", "FieldSeparators" -> ";", "RepeatedSeparators" -> False]  {{5, 8, 2803, ""}, {"", 6, 2793, ""}}  Although I would consider the default behavior as a bug: the element "" shouldn't be interpreted as an absence of a field, it is just an empty string which is a perfectly valid field! 1 answered Jan 19 '18 at 17:26 Alexey Popkov 39.9k44 gold badges113113 silver badges274274 bronze badges Option "RepeatedSeparators" -> False solves the problem: file = "\"5\";\"8\";\"2803\"; \"\";\"6\";\"2793\";"; ImportString[file, "Table", "FieldSeparators" -> ";", "RepeatedSeparators" -> False]  {{5, 8, 2803, ""}, {"", 6, 2793, ""}}