Reading and Writing CSV Files in Python

CSV (Comma Separated Values) format is the most common import and export format for spreadsheets and databases. It is one of the most common methods for exchanging data between applications and popular data format used in Data Science. It is supported by a wide range of applications. A CSV file stores tabular data in which each data field is separated by a delimiter(comma in most cases). To represent a CSV file, it must be saved with the .csv file extension.

Reading from CSV file

import csv

with open('employee_birthday.txt') as csv_file:
    csv_reader = csv.reader(csv_file, delimiter=',')
    line_count = 0
    for row in csv_reader:
        if line_count == 0:
            print(f'Column names are {", ".join(row)}')
            line_count += 1
        else:
            print(f'\t{row[0]} works in the {row[1]} department, and was born in {row[2]}.')
            line_count += 1
    print(f'Processed {line_count} lines.')

OUTPUT:
Column names are name, department, birthday month
John Smith works in the Accounting department, and was born in November.
Erica Meyers works in the IT department, and was born in March.
Processed 3 lines.

Python contains a module called csv for the handling of CSV files. The reader class from the module is used for reading data from a CSV file. At first, the CSV file is opened using the open() method in ‘r’ mode(specifies read mode while opening a file) which returns the file object then it is read by using the reader() method of CSV module that returns the reader object that iterates throughout the lines in the specified CSV document.