Version:           1.6.5 (using KDE 3.5.9)
Installed from:    SuSE RPMs

KSpread import and insert external data from text file provide a set of options similar to other spreadsheets for handling comma (or other delimiter) separated values; one of these defines the field separator ("Delimiter" in the KSpread "Inserting Text File" dialog) and onother defines a quoting mechanism for hiding field separators which are embedded in the field data ("Textquote" (not a word in any dictionary) in the KSpread dialog).  The separator ("Delimiter") choices are common and appear to work.  The quoting mechanism provides three choices,
" (double-quote)
' (single-quote)
None (presumably to turn off the mechanism, but it instead uses the character 'N' as documented in bug 52542, which is erroneously marked as RESOLVED)
All three of these mechanisms are broken; the last is documented in the original and recently updated reports for bug 52542 (q.v.).  This bug report documents failures in the first two quoting mechanisms.  The specific failure documented in this bug report is this:

Where a pair of quoting characters does not surround a field separator (delimiter), or where the last quoting character is not followed by a separator followed by the end of the record (i.e. end of a line of text), the quoting character is in fact part of the data field and not a quoting mechanism.

A sample file will soon be attached to this bug report which illustrates failures in all three quoting options, reproducible as follows:

1. launch Kspread, select blank worksheet 
 2. place cursor in upper left cell of a sheet
 3. on the "Insert" menu, select "External Data" and "From Text File..." 
 4. open test2.csv text file 
 5. on "Inserting Text File" dialog, select the archaic name "Tabulator" for tab character delimiter, Format "Text", select any one of the 'Textquote:' options, and Start at line 1 
 6. observe data corruption, evident in dialog window even before selecting "OK" or "Cancel"

Please note that the test file can be imported flawlessly with either of the quoting options available in OpenOffice Calc version 2.4.1 (Build 2.4.1.6); it may be instructive for Kspread maintainers to try it for comparison.