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<div class="section" id="module-csv">
<span id="csv-csv-file-reading-and-writing"></span><h1><a class="reference internal" href="#module-csv" title="csv: Write and read tabular data to and from delimited files."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">csv</span></code></a> — CSV File Reading and Writing<a class="headerlink" href="#module-csv" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p><strong>Source code:</strong> <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/python/cpython/tree/3.7/Lib/csv.py">Lib/csv.py</a></p>
<hr class="docutils" id="index-0" />
<p>The so-called CSV (Comma Separated Values) format is the most common import and
export format for spreadsheets and databases. CSV format was used for many
years prior to attempts to describe the format in a standardized way in
<span class="target" id="index-1"></span><a class="rfc reference external" href="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4180.html"><strong>RFC 4180</strong></a>. The lack of a well-defined standard means that subtle differences
often exist in the data produced and consumed by different applications. These
differences can make it annoying to process CSV files from multiple sources.
Still, while the delimiters and quoting characters vary, the overall format is
similar enough that it is possible to write a single module which can
efficiently manipulate such data, hiding the details of reading and writing the
data from the programmer.</p>
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-csv" title="csv: Write and read tabular data to and from delimited files."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">csv</span></code></a> module implements classes to read and write tabular data in CSV
format. It allows programmers to say, “write this data in the format preferred
by Excel,” or “read data from this file which was generated by Excel,” without
knowing the precise details of the CSV format used by Excel. Programmers can
also describe the CSV formats understood by other applications or define their
own special-purpose CSV formats.</p>
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-csv" title="csv: Write and read tabular data to and from delimited files."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">csv</span></code></a> module’s <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.reader" title="csv.reader"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">reader</span></code></a> and <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.writer" title="csv.writer"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">writer</span></code></a> objects read and
write sequences. Programmers can also read and write data in dictionary form
using the <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.DictReader" title="csv.DictReader"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">DictReader</span></code></a> and <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.DictWriter" title="csv.DictWriter"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">DictWriter</span></code></a> classes.</p>
<div class="admonition seealso">
<p class="admonition-title">See also</p>
<dl class="simple">
<dt><span class="target" id="index-2"></span><a class="pep reference external" href="https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0305"><strong>PEP 305</strong></a> - CSV File API</dt><dd><p>The Python Enhancement Proposal which proposed this addition to Python.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</div>
<div class="section" id="module-contents">
<span id="csv-contents"></span><h2>Module Contents<a class="headerlink" href="#module-contents" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-csv" title="csv: Write and read tabular data to and from delimited files."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">csv</span></code></a> module defines the following functions:</p>
<span class="target" id="index-3"></span><dl class="function">
<dt id="csv.reader">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">csv.</code><code class="sig-name descname">reader</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param">csvfile</em>, <em class="sig-param">dialect='excel'</em>, <em class="sig-param">**fmtparams</em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.reader" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return a reader object which will iterate over lines in the given <em>csvfile</em>.
<em>csvfile</em> can be any object which supports the <a class="reference internal" href="../glossary.html#term-iterator"><span class="xref std std-term">iterator</span></a> protocol and returns a
string each time its <code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__next__()</span></code> method is called — <a class="reference internal" href="../glossary.html#term-file-object"><span class="xref std std-term">file objects</span></a> and list objects are both suitable. If <em>csvfile</em> is a file object,
it should be opened with <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">newline=''</span></code>. <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id3" id="id1">1</a> An optional
<em>dialect</em> parameter can be given which is used to define a set of parameters
specific to a particular CSV dialect. It may be an instance of a subclass of
the <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.Dialect" title="csv.Dialect"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Dialect</span></code></a> class or one of the strings returned by the
<a class="reference internal" href="#csv.list_dialects" title="csv.list_dialects"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">list_dialects()</span></code></a> function. The other optional <em>fmtparams</em> keyword arguments
can be given to override individual formatting parameters in the current
dialect. For full details about the dialect and formatting parameters, see
section <a class="reference internal" href="#csv-fmt-params"><span class="std std-ref">Dialects and Formatting Parameters</span></a>.</p>
<p>Each row read from the csv file is returned as a list of strings. No
automatic data type conversion is performed unless the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">QUOTE_NONNUMERIC</span></code> format
option is specified (in which case unquoted fields are transformed into floats).</p>
<p>A short usage example:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">csv</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">with</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'eggs.csv'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">newline</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">''</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">csvfile</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">spamreader</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">csv</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">reader</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">csvfile</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">delimiter</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">' '</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">quotechar</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'|'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">row</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">spamreader</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span> <span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">', '</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">join</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">row</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="go">Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Baked Beans</span>
<span class="go">Spam, Lovely Spam, Wonderful Spam</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="csv.writer">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">csv.</code><code class="sig-name descname">writer</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param">csvfile</em>, <em class="sig-param">dialect='excel'</em>, <em class="sig-param">**fmtparams</em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.writer" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return a writer object responsible for converting the user’s data into delimited
strings on the given file-like object. <em>csvfile</em> can be any object with a
<code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">write()</span></code> method. If <em>csvfile</em> is a file object, it should be opened with
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">newline=''</span></code> <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id3" id="id2">1</a>. An optional <em>dialect</em>
parameter can be given which is used to define a set of parameters specific to a
particular CSV dialect. It may be an instance of a subclass of the
<a class="reference internal" href="#csv.Dialect" title="csv.Dialect"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Dialect</span></code></a> class or one of the strings returned by the
<a class="reference internal" href="#csv.list_dialects" title="csv.list_dialects"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">list_dialects()</span></code></a> function. The other optional <em>fmtparams</em> keyword arguments
can be given to override individual formatting parameters in the current
dialect. For full details about the dialect and formatting parameters, see
section <a class="reference internal" href="#csv-fmt-params"><span class="std std-ref">Dialects and Formatting Parameters</span></a>. To make it
as easy as possible to interface with modules which implement the DB API, the
value <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#None" title="None"><code class="xref py py-const docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code></a> is written as the empty string. While this isn’t a
reversible transformation, it makes it easier to dump SQL NULL data values to
CSV files without preprocessing the data returned from a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">cursor.fetch*</span></code> call.
All other non-string data are stringified with <a class="reference internal" href="stdtypes.html#str" title="str"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">str()</span></code></a> before being written.</p>
<p>A short usage example:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">csv</span>
<span class="k">with</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'eggs.csv'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'w'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">newline</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">''</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">csvfile</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">spamwriter</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">csv</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">writer</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">csvfile</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">delimiter</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">' '</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">quotechar</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'|'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">quoting</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">csv</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">QUOTE_MINIMAL</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">spamwriter</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">writerow</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="s1">'Spam'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">*</span> <span class="mi">5</span> <span class="o">+</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'Baked Beans'</span><span class="p">])</span>
<span class="n">spamwriter</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">writerow</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="s1">'Spam'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'Lovely Spam'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'Wonderful Spam'</span><span class="p">])</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="csv.register_dialect">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">csv.</code><code class="sig-name descname">register_dialect</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param">name</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em class="sig-param">dialect</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em class="sig-param">**fmtparams</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.register_dialect" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Associate <em>dialect</em> with <em>name</em>. <em>name</em> must be a string. The
dialect can be specified either by passing a sub-class of <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.Dialect" title="csv.Dialect"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Dialect</span></code></a>, or
by <em>fmtparams</em> keyword arguments, or both, with keyword arguments overriding
parameters of the dialect. For full details about the dialect and formatting
parameters, see section <a class="reference internal" href="#csv-fmt-params"><span class="std std-ref">Dialects and Formatting Parameters</span></a>.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="csv.unregister_dialect">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">csv.</code><code class="sig-name descname">unregister_dialect</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param">name</em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.unregister_dialect" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Delete the dialect associated with <em>name</em> from the dialect registry. An
<a class="reference internal" href="#csv.Error" title="csv.Error"><code class="xref py py-exc docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Error</span></code></a> is raised if <em>name</em> is not a registered dialect name.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="csv.get_dialect">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">csv.</code><code class="sig-name descname">get_dialect</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param">name</em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.get_dialect" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return the dialect associated with <em>name</em>. An <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.Error" title="csv.Error"><code class="xref py py-exc docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Error</span></code></a> is raised if
<em>name</em> is not a registered dialect name. This function returns an immutable
<a class="reference internal" href="#csv.Dialect" title="csv.Dialect"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Dialect</span></code></a>.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="csv.list_dialects">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">csv.</code><code class="sig-name descname">list_dialects</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.list_dialects" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return the names of all registered dialects.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="csv.field_size_limit">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">csv.</code><code class="sig-name descname">field_size_limit</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><span class="optional">[</span><em class="sig-param">new_limit</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.field_size_limit" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Returns the current maximum field size allowed by the parser. If <em>new_limit</em> is
given, this becomes the new limit.</p>
</dd></dl>
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-csv" title="csv: Write and read tabular data to and from delimited files."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">csv</span></code></a> module defines the following classes:</p>
<dl class="class">
<dt id="csv.DictReader">
<em class="property">class </em><code class="sig-prename descclassname">csv.</code><code class="sig-name descname">DictReader</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param">f</em>, <em class="sig-param">fieldnames=None</em>, <em class="sig-param">restkey=None</em>, <em class="sig-param">restval=None</em>, <em class="sig-param">dialect='excel'</em>, <em class="sig-param">*args</em>, <em class="sig-param">**kwds</em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.DictReader" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Create an object that operates like a regular reader but maps the
information in each row to an <a class="reference internal" href="collections.html#collections.OrderedDict" title="collections.OrderedDict"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">OrderedDict</span></code></a>
whose keys are given by the optional <em>fieldnames</em> parameter.</p>
<p>The <em>fieldnames</em> parameter is a <a class="reference internal" href="../glossary.html#term-sequence"><span class="xref std std-term">sequence</span></a>. If <em>fieldnames</em> is
omitted, the values in the first row of file <em>f</em> will be used as the
fieldnames. Regardless of how the fieldnames are determined, the ordered
dictionary preserves their original ordering.</p>
<p>If a row has more fields than fieldnames, the remaining data is put in a
list and stored with the fieldname specified by <em>restkey</em> (which defaults
to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code>). If a non-blank row has fewer fields than fieldnames, the
missing values are filled-in with the value of <em>restval</em> (which defaults
to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code>).</p>
<p>All other optional or keyword arguments are passed to the underlying
<a class="reference internal" href="#csv.reader" title="csv.reader"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">reader</span></code></a> instance.</p>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified changed">Changed in version 3.6: </span>Returned rows are now of type <code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">OrderedDict</span></code>.</p>
</div>
<p>A short usage example:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">csv</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">with</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'names.csv'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">newline</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">''</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">csvfile</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span> <span class="n">reader</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">csv</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">DictReader</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">csvfile</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">row</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">reader</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span> <span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">row</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'first_name'</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="n">row</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'last_name'</span><span class="p">])</span>
<span class="gp">...</span>
<span class="go">Eric Idle</span>
<span class="go">John Cleese</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">row</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">OrderedDict([('first_name', 'John'), ('last_name', 'Cleese')])</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="class">
<dt id="csv.DictWriter">
<em class="property">class </em><code class="sig-prename descclassname">csv.</code><code class="sig-name descname">DictWriter</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param">f</em>, <em class="sig-param">fieldnames</em>, <em class="sig-param">restval=''</em>, <em class="sig-param">extrasaction='raise'</em>, <em class="sig-param">dialect='excel'</em>, <em class="sig-param">*args</em>, <em class="sig-param">**kwds</em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.DictWriter" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Create an object which operates like a regular writer but maps dictionaries
onto output rows. The <em>fieldnames</em> parameter is a <a class="reference internal" href="collections.abc.html#module-collections.abc" title="collections.abc: Abstract base classes for containers"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sequence</span></code></a> of keys that identify the order in which values in the
dictionary passed to the <code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">writerow()</span></code> method are written to file
<em>f</em>. The optional <em>restval</em> parameter specifies the value to be
written if the dictionary is missing a key in <em>fieldnames</em>. If the
dictionary passed to the <code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">writerow()</span></code> method contains a key not found in
<em>fieldnames</em>, the optional <em>extrasaction</em> parameter indicates what action to
take.
If it is set to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'raise'</span></code>, the default value, a <a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#ValueError" title="ValueError"><code class="xref py py-exc docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ValueError</span></code></a>
is raised.
If it is set to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'ignore'</span></code>, extra values in the dictionary are ignored.
Any other optional or keyword arguments are passed to the underlying
<a class="reference internal" href="#csv.writer" title="csv.writer"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">writer</span></code></a> instance.</p>
<p>Note that unlike the <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.DictReader" title="csv.DictReader"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">DictReader</span></code></a> class, the <em>fieldnames</em> parameter
of the <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.DictWriter" title="csv.DictWriter"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">DictWriter</span></code></a> class is not optional.</p>
<p>A short usage example:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">csv</span>
<span class="k">with</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'names.csv'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'w'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">newline</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">''</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">csvfile</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">fieldnames</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'first_name'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'last_name'</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="n">writer</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">csv</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">DictWriter</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">csvfile</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">fieldnames</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">fieldnames</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">writer</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">writeheader</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">writer</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">writerow</span><span class="p">({</span><span class="s1">'first_name'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s1">'Baked'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'last_name'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s1">'Beans'</span><span class="p">})</span>
<span class="n">writer</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">writerow</span><span class="p">({</span><span class="s1">'first_name'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s1">'Lovely'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'last_name'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s1">'Spam'</span><span class="p">})</span>
<span class="n">writer</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">writerow</span><span class="p">({</span><span class="s1">'first_name'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s1">'Wonderful'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'last_name'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s1">'Spam'</span><span class="p">})</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="class">
<dt id="csv.Dialect">
<em class="property">class </em><code class="sig-prename descclassname">csv.</code><code class="sig-name descname">Dialect</code><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.Dialect" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.Dialect" title="csv.Dialect"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Dialect</span></code></a> class is a container class relied on primarily for its
attributes, which are used to define the parameters for a specific
<a class="reference internal" href="#csv.reader" title="csv.reader"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">reader</span></code></a> or <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.writer" title="csv.writer"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">writer</span></code></a> instance.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="class">
<dt id="csv.excel">
<em class="property">class </em><code class="sig-prename descclassname">csv.</code><code class="sig-name descname">excel</code><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.excel" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.excel" title="csv.excel"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">excel</span></code></a> class defines the usual properties of an Excel-generated CSV
file. It is registered with the dialect name <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'excel'</span></code>.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="class">
<dt id="csv.excel_tab">
<em class="property">class </em><code class="sig-prename descclassname">csv.</code><code class="sig-name descname">excel_tab</code><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.excel_tab" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.excel_tab" title="csv.excel_tab"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">excel_tab</span></code></a> class defines the usual properties of an Excel-generated
TAB-delimited file. It is registered with the dialect name <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'excel-tab'</span></code>.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="class">
<dt id="csv.unix_dialect">
<em class="property">class </em><code class="sig-prename descclassname">csv.</code><code class="sig-name descname">unix_dialect</code><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.unix_dialect" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.unix_dialect" title="csv.unix_dialect"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">unix_dialect</span></code></a> class defines the usual properties of a CSV file
generated on UNIX systems, i.e. using <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'\n'</span></code> as line terminator and quoting
all fields. It is registered with the dialect name <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'unix'</span></code>.</p>
<div class="versionadded">
<p><span class="versionmodified added">New in version 3.2.</span></p>
</div>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="class">
<dt id="csv.Sniffer">
<em class="property">class </em><code class="sig-prename descclassname">csv.</code><code class="sig-name descname">Sniffer</code><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.Sniffer" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.Sniffer" title="csv.Sniffer"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Sniffer</span></code></a> class is used to deduce the format of a CSV file.</p>
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.Sniffer" title="csv.Sniffer"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Sniffer</span></code></a> class provides two methods:</p>
<dl class="method">
<dt id="csv.Sniffer.sniff">
<code class="sig-name descname">sniff</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param">sample</em>, <em class="sig-param">delimiters=None</em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.Sniffer.sniff" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Analyze the given <em>sample</em> and return a <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.Dialect" title="csv.Dialect"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Dialect</span></code></a> subclass
reflecting the parameters found. If the optional <em>delimiters</em> parameter
is given, it is interpreted as a string containing possible valid
delimiter characters.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="method">
<dt id="csv.Sniffer.has_header">
<code class="sig-name descname">has_header</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param">sample</em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.Sniffer.has_header" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Analyze the sample text (presumed to be in CSV format) and return
<a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#True" title="True"><code class="xref py py-const docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code></a> if the first row appears to be a series of column headers.</p>
</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
<p>An example for <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.Sniffer" title="csv.Sniffer"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Sniffer</span></code></a> use:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">with</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'example.csv'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">newline</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">''</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">csvfile</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">dialect</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">csv</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Sniffer</span><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">sniff</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">csvfile</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">read</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1024</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="n">csvfile</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">seek</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">reader</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">csv</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">reader</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">csvfile</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">dialect</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="c1"># ... process CSV file contents here ...</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-csv" title="csv: Write and read tabular data to and from delimited files."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">csv</span></code></a> module defines the following constants:</p>
<dl class="data">
<dt id="csv.QUOTE_ALL">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">csv.</code><code class="sig-name descname">QUOTE_ALL</code><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.QUOTE_ALL" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Instructs <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.writer" title="csv.writer"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">writer</span></code></a> objects to quote all fields.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="data">
<dt id="csv.QUOTE_MINIMAL">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">csv.</code><code class="sig-name descname">QUOTE_MINIMAL</code><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.QUOTE_MINIMAL" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Instructs <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.writer" title="csv.writer"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">writer</span></code></a> objects to only quote those fields which contain
special characters such as <em>delimiter</em>, <em>quotechar</em> or any of the characters in
<em>lineterminator</em>.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="data">
<dt id="csv.QUOTE_NONNUMERIC">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">csv.</code><code class="sig-name descname">QUOTE_NONNUMERIC</code><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.QUOTE_NONNUMERIC" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Instructs <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.writer" title="csv.writer"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">writer</span></code></a> objects to quote all non-numeric fields.</p>
<p>Instructs the reader to convert all non-quoted fields to type <em>float</em>.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="data">
<dt id="csv.QUOTE_NONE">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">csv.</code><code class="sig-name descname">QUOTE_NONE</code><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.QUOTE_NONE" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Instructs <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.writer" title="csv.writer"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">writer</span></code></a> objects to never quote fields. When the current
<em>delimiter</em> occurs in output data it is preceded by the current <em>escapechar</em>
character. If <em>escapechar</em> is not set, the writer will raise <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.Error" title="csv.Error"><code class="xref py py-exc docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Error</span></code></a> if
any characters that require escaping are encountered.</p>
<p>Instructs <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.reader" title="csv.reader"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">reader</span></code></a> to perform no special processing of quote characters.</p>
</dd></dl>
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-csv" title="csv: Write and read tabular data to and from delimited files."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">csv</span></code></a> module defines the following exception:</p>
<dl class="exception">
<dt id="csv.Error">
<em class="property">exception </em><code class="sig-prename descclassname">csv.</code><code class="sig-name descname">Error</code><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.Error" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Raised by any of the functions when an error is detected.</p>
</dd></dl>
</div>
<div class="section" id="dialects-and-formatting-parameters">
<span id="csv-fmt-params"></span><h2>Dialects and Formatting Parameters<a class="headerlink" href="#dialects-and-formatting-parameters" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>To make it easier to specify the format of input and output records, specific
formatting parameters are grouped together into dialects. A dialect is a
subclass of the <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.Dialect" title="csv.Dialect"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Dialect</span></code></a> class having a set of specific methods and a
single <code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">validate()</span></code> method. When creating <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.reader" title="csv.reader"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">reader</span></code></a> or
<a class="reference internal" href="#csv.writer" title="csv.writer"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">writer</span></code></a> objects, the programmer can specify a string or a subclass of
the <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.Dialect" title="csv.Dialect"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Dialect</span></code></a> class as the dialect parameter. In addition to, or instead
of, the <em>dialect</em> parameter, the programmer can also specify individual
formatting parameters, which have the same names as the attributes defined below
for the <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.Dialect" title="csv.Dialect"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Dialect</span></code></a> class.</p>
<p>Dialects support the following attributes:</p>
<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="csv.Dialect.delimiter">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">Dialect.</code><code class="sig-name descname">delimiter</code><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.Dialect.delimiter" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>A one-character string used to separate fields. It defaults to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">','</span></code>.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="csv.Dialect.doublequote">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">Dialect.</code><code class="sig-name descname">doublequote</code><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.Dialect.doublequote" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Controls how instances of <em>quotechar</em> appearing inside a field should
themselves be quoted. When <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#True" title="True"><code class="xref py py-const docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code></a>, the character is doubled. When
<a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#False" title="False"><code class="xref py py-const docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">False</span></code></a>, the <em>escapechar</em> is used as a prefix to the <em>quotechar</em>. It
defaults to <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#True" title="True"><code class="xref py py-const docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code></a>.</p>
<p>On output, if <em>doublequote</em> is <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#False" title="False"><code class="xref py py-const docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">False</span></code></a> and no <em>escapechar</em> is set,
<a class="reference internal" href="#csv.Error" title="csv.Error"><code class="xref py py-exc docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Error</span></code></a> is raised if a <em>quotechar</em> is found in a field.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="csv.Dialect.escapechar">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">Dialect.</code><code class="sig-name descname">escapechar</code><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.Dialect.escapechar" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>A one-character string used by the writer to escape the <em>delimiter</em> if <em>quoting</em>
is set to <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.QUOTE_NONE" title="csv.QUOTE_NONE"><code class="xref py py-const docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">QUOTE_NONE</span></code></a> and the <em>quotechar</em> if <em>doublequote</em> is
<a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#False" title="False"><code class="xref py py-const docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">False</span></code></a>. On reading, the <em>escapechar</em> removes any special meaning from
the following character. It defaults to <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#None" title="None"><code class="xref py py-const docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code></a>, which disables escaping.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="csv.Dialect.lineterminator">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">Dialect.</code><code class="sig-name descname">lineterminator</code><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.Dialect.lineterminator" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>The string used to terminate lines produced by the <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.writer" title="csv.writer"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">writer</span></code></a>. It defaults
to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'\r\n'</span></code>.</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="admonition-title">Note</p>
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.reader" title="csv.reader"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">reader</span></code></a> is hard-coded to recognise either <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'\r'</span></code> or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'\n'</span></code> as
end-of-line, and ignores <em>lineterminator</em>. This behavior may change in the
future.</p>
</div>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="csv.Dialect.quotechar">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">Dialect.</code><code class="sig-name descname">quotechar</code><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.Dialect.quotechar" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>A one-character string used to quote fields containing special characters, such
as the <em>delimiter</em> or <em>quotechar</em>, or which contain new-line characters. It
defaults to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'"'</span></code>.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="csv.Dialect.quoting">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">Dialect.</code><code class="sig-name descname">quoting</code><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.Dialect.quoting" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Controls when quotes should be generated by the writer and recognised by the
reader. It can take on any of the <code class="xref py py-const docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">QUOTE_*</span></code> constants (see section
<a class="reference internal" href="#csv-contents"><span class="std std-ref">Module Contents</span></a>) and defaults to <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.QUOTE_MINIMAL" title="csv.QUOTE_MINIMAL"><code class="xref py py-const docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">QUOTE_MINIMAL</span></code></a>.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="csv.Dialect.skipinitialspace">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">Dialect.</code><code class="sig-name descname">skipinitialspace</code><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.Dialect.skipinitialspace" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>When <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#True" title="True"><code class="xref py py-const docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code></a>, whitespace immediately following the <em>delimiter</em> is ignored.
The default is <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#False" title="False"><code class="xref py py-const docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">False</span></code></a>.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="csv.Dialect.strict">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">Dialect.</code><code class="sig-name descname">strict</code><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.Dialect.strict" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>When <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code>, raise exception <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.Error" title="csv.Error"><code class="xref py py-exc docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Error</span></code></a> on bad CSV input.
The default is <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">False</span></code>.</p>
</dd></dl>
</div>
<div class="section" id="reader-objects">
<h2>Reader Objects<a class="headerlink" href="#reader-objects" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Reader objects (<a class="reference internal" href="#csv.DictReader" title="csv.DictReader"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">DictReader</span></code></a> instances and objects returned by the
<a class="reference internal" href="#csv.reader" title="csv.reader"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">reader()</span></code></a> function) have the following public methods:</p>
<dl class="method">
<dt id="csv.csvreader.__next__">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">csvreader.</code><code class="sig-name descname">__next__</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.csvreader.__next__" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return the next row of the reader’s iterable object as a list (if the object
was returned from <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.reader" title="csv.reader"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">reader()</span></code></a>) or a dict (if it is a <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.DictReader" title="csv.DictReader"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">DictReader</span></code></a>
instance), parsed according to the current dialect. Usually you should call
this as <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">next(reader)</span></code>.</p>
</dd></dl>
<p>Reader objects have the following public attributes:</p>
<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="csv.csvreader.dialect">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">csvreader.</code><code class="sig-name descname">dialect</code><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.csvreader.dialect" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>A read-only description of the dialect in use by the parser.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="csv.csvreader.line_num">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">csvreader.</code><code class="sig-name descname">line_num</code><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.csvreader.line_num" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>The number of lines read from the source iterator. This is not the same as the
number of records returned, as records can span multiple lines.</p>
</dd></dl>
<p>DictReader objects have the following public attribute:</p>
<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="csv.csvreader.fieldnames">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">csvreader.</code><code class="sig-name descname">fieldnames</code><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.csvreader.fieldnames" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>If not passed as a parameter when creating the object, this attribute is
initialized upon first access or when the first record is read from the
file.</p>
</dd></dl>
</div>
<div class="section" id="writer-objects">
<h2>Writer Objects<a class="headerlink" href="#writer-objects" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Writer</span></code> objects (<a class="reference internal" href="#csv.DictWriter" title="csv.DictWriter"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">DictWriter</span></code></a> instances and objects returned by
the <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.writer" title="csv.writer"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">writer()</span></code></a> function) have the following public methods. A <em>row</em> must be
an iterable of strings or numbers for <code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Writer</span></code> objects and a dictionary
mapping fieldnames to strings or numbers (by passing them through <a class="reference internal" href="stdtypes.html#str" title="str"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">str()</span></code></a>
first) for <a class="reference internal" href="#csv.DictWriter" title="csv.DictWriter"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">DictWriter</span></code></a> objects. Note that complex numbers are written
out surrounded by parens. This may cause some problems for other programs which
read CSV files (assuming they support complex numbers at all).</p>
<dl class="method">
<dt id="csv.csvwriter.writerow">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">csvwriter.</code><code class="sig-name descname">writerow</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param">row</em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.csvwriter.writerow" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Write the <em>row</em> parameter to the writer’s file object, formatted according to
the current dialect.</p>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified changed">Changed in version 3.5: </span>Added support of arbitrary iterables.</p>
</div>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="method">
<dt id="csv.csvwriter.writerows">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">csvwriter.</code><code class="sig-name descname">writerows</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param">rows</em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.csvwriter.writerows" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Write all elements in <em>rows</em> (an iterable of <em>row</em> objects as described
above) to the writer’s file object, formatted according to the current
dialect.</p>
</dd></dl>
<p>Writer objects have the following public attribute:</p>
<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="csv.csvwriter.dialect">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">csvwriter.</code><code class="sig-name descname">dialect</code><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.csvwriter.dialect" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>A read-only description of the dialect in use by the writer.</p>
</dd></dl>
<p>DictWriter objects have the following public method:</p>
<dl class="method">
<dt id="csv.DictWriter.writeheader">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">DictWriter.</code><code class="sig-name descname">writeheader</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#csv.DictWriter.writeheader" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Write a row with the field names (as specified in the constructor).</p>
<div class="versionadded">
<p><span class="versionmodified added">New in version 3.2.</span></p>
</div>
</dd></dl>
</div>
<div class="section" id="examples">
<span id="csv-examples"></span><h2>Examples<a class="headerlink" href="#examples" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The simplest example of reading a CSV file:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">csv</span>
<span class="k">with</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'some.csv'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">newline</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">''</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">f</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">reader</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">csv</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">reader</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">f</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">row</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">reader</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">row</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Reading a file with an alternate format:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">csv</span>
<span class="k">with</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'passwd'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">newline</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">''</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">f</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">reader</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">csv</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">reader</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">f</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">delimiter</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">':'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">quoting</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">csv</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">QUOTE_NONE</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">row</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">reader</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">row</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The corresponding simplest possible writing example is:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">csv</span>
<span class="k">with</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'some.csv'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'w'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">newline</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">''</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">f</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">writer</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">csv</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">writer</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">f</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">writer</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">writerows</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">someiterable</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Since <a class="reference internal" href="functions.html#open" title="open"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">open()</span></code></a> is used to open a CSV file for reading, the file
will by default be decoded into unicode using the system default
encoding (see <a class="reference internal" href="locale.html#locale.getpreferredencoding" title="locale.getpreferredencoding"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">locale.getpreferredencoding()</span></code></a>). To decode a file
using a different encoding, use the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">encoding</span></code> argument of open:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">csv</span>
<span class="k">with</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'some.csv'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">newline</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">''</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">encoding</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'utf-8'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">f</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">reader</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">csv</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">reader</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">f</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">row</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">reader</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">row</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The same applies to writing in something other than the system default
encoding: specify the encoding argument when opening the output file.</p>
<p>Registering a new dialect:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">csv</span>
<span class="n">csv</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">register_dialect</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'unixpwd'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">delimiter</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">':'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">quoting</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">csv</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">QUOTE_NONE</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">with</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'passwd'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">newline</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">''</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">f</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">reader</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">csv</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">reader</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">f</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'unixpwd'</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>A slightly more advanced use of the reader — catching and reporting errors:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">csv</span><span class="o">,</span> <span class="nn">sys</span>
<span class="n">filename</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">'some.csv'</span>
<span class="k">with</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">filename</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">newline</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">''</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">f</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">reader</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">csv</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">reader</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">f</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">row</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">reader</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">row</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">except</span> <span class="n">csv</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Error</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">e</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">sys</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">exit</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'file </span><span class="si">{}</span><span class="s1">, line </span><span class="si">{}</span><span class="s1">: </span><span class="si">{}</span><span class="s1">'</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">format</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">filename</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">reader</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">line_num</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">e</span><span class="p">))</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>And while the module doesn’t directly support parsing strings, it can easily be
done:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">csv</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">row</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">csv</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">reader</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="s1">'one,two,three'</span><span class="p">]):</span>
<span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">row</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p class="rubric">Footnotes</p>
<dl class="footnote brackets">
<dt class="label" id="id3"><span class="brackets">1</span><span class="fn-backref">(<a href="#id1">1</a>,<a href="#id2">2</a>)</span></dt>
<dd><p>If <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">newline=''</span></code> is not specified, newlines embedded inside quoted fields
will not be interpreted correctly, and on platforms that use <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">\r\n</span></code> linendings
on write an extra <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">\r</span></code> will be added. It should always be safe to specify
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">newline=''</span></code>, since the csv module does its own
(<a class="reference internal" href="../glossary.html#term-universal-newlines"><span class="xref std std-term">universal</span></a>) newline handling.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</div>
</div>
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<h3><a href="../contents.html">Table of Contents</a></h3>
<ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">csv</span></code> — CSV File Reading and Writing</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#module-contents">Module Contents</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#dialects-and-formatting-parameters">Dialects and Formatting Parameters</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#reader-objects">Reader Objects</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#writer-objects">Writer Objects</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#examples">Examples</a></li>
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