What is a CSV?
CSV (Comma Separated Values) is a simple file format used to store tabular data, such as a
spreadsheet or database. A CSV file stores tabular data (numbers and text) in plain text. Each
line of the file is a data record. Each record consists of one or more fields, separated by
commas. The use of the comma as a field separator is the source of the name for this file
format.
For working CSV files in Python, there is an inbuilt module called csv.
Example 1: Reading a CSV file
# importing csv module
import csv
# csv file name
filename = "aapl.csv"
# initializing the titles and rows list
fields = []
rows = []
# reading csv file
with open(filename, 'r') as csvfile:
# creating a csv reader object
csvreader = csv.reader(csvfile)
# extracting field names through first row
fields = next(csvreader)
# extracting each data row one by one
for row in csvreader:
rows.append(row)
# get total number of rows
print("Total no. of rows: %d"%(csvreader.line_num))
# printing the field names
print('Field names are:' + ', '.join(field for field in fields))
# printing first 5 rows
print('\nFirst 5 rows are:\n')
for row in rows[:5]:
# parsing each column of a row
for col in row:
print("%10s"%col,end=" "),
print('\n')
Example 2: Writing to a CSV file
# importing the csv module
import csv
# field names
fields = ['Name', 'Branch', 'Year', 'CGPA']
# data rows of csv file
rows = [ ['Nikhil', 'COE', '2', '9.0'],
['Sanchit', 'COE', '2', '9.1'],
['Aditya', 'IT', '2', '9.3'],
['Sagar', 'SE', '1', '9.5'],
['Prateek', 'MCE', '3', '7.8'],
['Sahil', 'EP', '2', '9.1']]
# name of csv file
filename = "university_records.csv"
# writing to csv file
with open(filename, 'w') as csvfile:
# creating a csv writer object
csvwriter = csv.writer(csvfile)
# writing the fields
csvwriter.writerow(fields)
# writing the data rows
csvwriter.writerows(rows)
Example 3: Writing a dictionary to a CSV file
# importing the csv module
import csv
# my data rows as dictionary objects
mydict =[{'branch': 'COE', 'cgpa': '9.0',
'name': 'Nikhil', 'year': '2'},
{'branch': 'COE', 'cgpa': '9.1',
'name': 'Sanchit', 'year': '2'},
{'branch': 'IT', 'cgpa': '9.3',
'name': 'Aditya', 'year': '2'},
{'branch': 'SE', 'cgpa': '9.5',
'name': 'Sagar', 'year': '1'},
{'branch': 'MCE', 'cgpa': '7.8',
'name': 'Prateek', 'year': '3'},
{'branch': 'EP', 'cgpa': '9.1',
'name': 'Sahil', 'year': '2'}]
# field names
fields = ['name', 'branch', 'year', 'cgpa']
# name of csv file
filename = "university_records.csv"
# writing to csv file
with open(filename, 'w') as csvfile:
# creating a csv dict writer object
writer = csv.DictWriter(csvfile, fieldnames = fields)
# writing headers (field names)
writer.writeheader()
# writing data rows
writer.writerows(mydict)
