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30 views

03_01_csv-files-lesson-notes-optional-download_Files - CSV Files

Uploaded by

RAKESH SWAIN
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chapter 7 - Files

Files

CSV Files

Learning Objectives - CSV


Explain the “syntax” of a CSV file

Print the contents of CSV file in a human-readable way

Unpack for loop variables based on a CSV file

Read and write a CSV file with different delimiters

Write to a CSV file with writerow and writerows


CSV Files

CSV Files
Python can work with files besides just text files. Comma Separated Value
(CSV) files are an example of a commonly used file format for storing data.
CSV files are similar to a spreadsheet in that data is stored in rows and
columns. Each row of data is on its own line in the file, and commas are
used to indicate a new column. Here is an example of a CSV file.

Monty Python CSV

In order to read a CSV file, Python needs to import the csv module. If you
are importing a module, always start your code with the import
statements. The CSV file will be opened much like a text file, but Python
needs to run the file through a CSV reader.

import csv

with open("student_folder/csv/monty_python_movies.csv", "r") as input_file:

reader = csv.reader(input_file)
for row in reader:
print(row)
challenge

What happens if you:


Remove the import csv line of code?
Use the CSV filename as the parameter of reader:

import csv

with open("student_folder/csv/monty_python_movies.csv", "r") as input_file:


reader = csv.reader("monty_python_movies.csv")
for row in reader:
for data in row:
print(data)

Next
The first row of a CSV file is helpful because the header values provide
context for the data. However, the first row is not useful if you want to
know how many rows of data, or calculate the avg value, etc. The next
command allows Python to skip the first row before looping through the
CSV file.

import csv

with open("student_folder/csv/home_runs.csv", "r") as input_file:


reader = csv.reader(input_file)
next(reader) #skip the header row
for row in reader:
print(row)

challenge

What happens if you:


Remove the line next(reader)?
Have two lines of next(reader)?
Printing CSV Data

Printing CSV Data


Previously, printing the contents of the CSV file would return lists of
strings. This is not visually pleasing way of presenting the data. In the code
below, row is a list. So you can reference each element with an index. This
keeps Python from printing square brackets, quotation marks, etc.
Instead, it prints just the contents of the CSV file.

import csv

with open("student_folder/csv/home_runs.csv", "r") as input_file:


reader = csv.reader(input_file)
for row in reader:
print(row[0], row[1], row[2])

challenge

What happens if you:


Add a space between each column of data:
print(row[0], " ", row[1], " ", row[2])
Add a tab between each column of data:
print(row[0], "\t", row[1], "\t", row[2])
Change the print statement to:
print("{:<14} \t {:<9} \t {:^12}".format(row[0], row[1],
row[2]))

What does {:<14} mean?


Printing output that is aligned into columns may not work if you try to use
just spaces and tabs to separate the columns. {:<14} means left-justify the
text and use a width of 14. 14 was chosen because that is the length of the
longest names (Alex Rodriguez and Frank Robinson). Names shorter than
14 will “fill” the rest of the width with spaces. {:>14} means the text will be
right-justified with a width of 14. {:^14} means the text will be centered
across 14 spaces. Note, the format method needs to be used when aligning
text.
Unpacking
In the code above, the variable row represents a list of data. The first
element is the name of the player, the second element is the number of
career home runs, and the third element states they are currently an
active player. Python provides a way to take the descriptions of the each
element and use it in the for loop.

Unpacking CSV Info

The for loop has three variables: name, hr, and active. The first variable,
name, represents the first element in the list, the second variable, hr,
represents the second element of the list, and the third variable, active,
represents the third element. This is called unpacking.

import csv

with open("student_folder/csv/home_runs.csv", "r") as input_file:


reader = csv.reader(input_file)
next(reader) #skip the header names
for name, hr, active in reader:
print("{} hit {} home runs.".format(name, hr))

challenge

What happens if you:


Remove next(reader) from the program?
Remove the variable active?

Unpacking and list length


Unpacking only works if you know how many elements are in the list. You
must have the same number variables in the for loop as there are elements
in the list. If you don’t know how long a list is, you can always iterate over
the list to access all of the elements.
Delimiters

Delimiters
Delimiters are a predefined character that separates one piece of
information from another. CSV files use commas as the delimiter by
default. However, this makes the file hard to read for humans. It is
possible to change the delimiter in Python (click here to see an example),
but your code must reflect this change.

Tab Delimiter

import csv

with open("student_folder/csv/data_with_tabs.csv", "r") as input_file:

reader = csv.reader(input_file, delimiter="\t")


for row in reader:
print(row)

challenge

What happens if you:


Change the delimiter to ,?

Why did the output change when the delimiter changed?


There is a slight difference when the delimiter is a tab and when it is a
comma. With a tab delimiter, each row is a list of three strings. When the
delimiter is a comma, each row is a list with a single string. Python cannot
divide the data into the month, high temperature, and low temperature
because it cannot find the delimiter. So it returns one, long string.
Writing to CSV Files

Writerow
Writing to a CSV file is similar to writing to a text file. Open the file and set
the mode to write ("w"). If the file does not exist, Python will create it. Send
content to the file with the method writerow. Like reading a CSV, you need
to import the csv module. Instead of using a reader, you need to use a
writter to write information to the file. When you read information from a
CSV file, it is a list of strings. So information written to a CSV file should
also be a list of strings.

import csv

with open("student_folder/csv/write_practice.csv", "w") as output_file:

writer = csv.writer(output_file, lineterminator="\n")


writer.writerow(["Greeting", "Language"])
writer.writerow(["Hello", "English"])
writer.writerow(["Bonjour", "French"])
writer.writerow(["Hola", "Spanish"])
writer.writerow(["Namaste", "Hindi"])

Open the File

What does lineterminator mean?


The csv writer ends each line with the escape characters . The
combination of two different escape characters causes the following
warning. Changing
the lineterminator to will remove this warning because there will only be
one escape character at the end of each line.

challenge

What happens if you:


Add a different delimiter: csv.writer(output_file,
delimiter="\t")?
Remove the last two lines of code and run it again?
Change the mode to append "a" and run the program again?

Open the File

Writerows
The writerow method writes only one row of information to a CSV file. The
writerows method can write several rows of information to a CSV file.
writerows takes either a list of strings (a single row of information) or a list
of lists of strings (many rows of information).
Writerows

import csv

with open("student_folder/csv/write_practice.csv", "w") as output_file:

writer = csv.writer(output_file, lineterminator="\n")


writer.writerows([
["Artist", "Album", "Copies"],
["Michael Jackson", "Thriller", "47 million"],
["Eagles", "Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975", "38 million"],
["Eagles", "Hotel California", "26 million"]
])

Open the File

challenge

What happens if you:


Change writerows to writerow and open the file?
Change the mode to append "a" and run the program again?

Open the File

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