If you’re doing any kind of work in Data Science, you’ll probably run across the CSV file format rather often. It is a text file format used to store tabular data with the intention of making that data more accessible, easier to understand, and faster to process. Python and Java may be used to produce CSV files or to convert existing JSON files to CSV format. Here, I’ll introduce you to comma-separated values (CSVs), explain their purpose, and show you how to use Python to read and write CSVs in a variety of ways. The reason we’re focusing on Python is because it has a built-in csv module that makes it easy to both read and write CSV files. The article’s detailed explanations should make it easy for readers with little or no Python expertise to follow along.
In other words, what is a CSV?
The acronym “CSV” means “Comma Separated Values.” The fastest and simplest way to store the data is in a tabular format as plain text. We spend the vast bulk of our time as data scientists manipulating CSV files containing various types of data. If you are wondering how to read csv file in python then here are the options for you.
File Structure for CSV Format
A CSV file is made up of a header and data points, sometimes called records. Python can process the CSV file.
Among our documents is one called “Salary_Data.csv.” The first line of a CSV file is always the file’s header. In the same location as the column names, the names of the fields and features may be found at the very beginning of the file.
After the first header line, each subsequent line contains a separate set of data or information. Records are separated into their individual values by “commas.”
Is There a Step-by-Step Guide for Reading CSV Files in Python?
We will have a look at the many ways in which a CSV file may be read and the information it contains.
To read a CSV file using a csv reader, follow these steps:
- You must bring in the csv library.
- Be sure you’re working with a CSV file.
- The csv.reader object must be used in order to read the CSV file.
- The fields’ names should be retrieved.
- Eliminate the columns and files. A blank list denoted by rows should be the first step. The next step is to append each entry to the rows list by iterating over the csvreader object.
Please save your work and exit the file.
There is always the risk that we may forget to close a file that we have left open. The with() line may be used to get around this by releasing the resources immediately once they are no longer needed. Working with the with() statement eliminates the need to use the.close() method.
Using the csv.DictReader library
The Dict object in Python is a hash table where the keys and values are both specified. Using the dict() method, you may create a dictionary object from a set of keys and a set of values, or from an iterable of the two. This is the csv module.DictReader may be used to read CSV files.