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how to select a specific column of a csv file in python

I am a beginner of Python and would like to have your opinion..
I wrote this code that reads the only column in a file on my pc and puts it in a list.
I have difficulties understanding how I could modify the same code with a file that has multiple columns and select only the column of my interest.
Can you help me?
list = []
with open(r'C:\Users\Desktop\mydoc.csv') as file:
for line in file:
item = int(line)
list.append(item)
results = []
for i in range(0,1086):
a = list[i-1]
b = list[i]
c = list[i+1]
results.append(b)
print(results)

You can use pandas.read_csv() method very simply like this:
import pandas as pd
my_data_frame = pd.read_csv('path/to/your/data')
results = my_data_frame['name_of_your_wanted_column'].values.tolist()

A useful module for the kind of work you are doing is the imaginatively named csv module.
Many csv files have a "header" at the top, this by convention is a useful way of labeling the columns of your file. Assuming you can insert a line at the top of your csv file with comma delimited fieldnames, then you could replace your program with something like:
import csv
with open(r'C:\Users\Desktop\mydoc.csv') as myfile:
csv_reader = csv.DictReader(myfile)
for row in csv_reader:
print ( row['column_name_of_interest'])
The above will print to the terminal all the values that match your specific 'column_name_of_interest' after you edit it to match your particular file.
It's normal to work with lots of columns at once, so that dictionary method of packing a whole row into a single object, addressable by column-name can be very convenient later on.

To a pure python implementation, you should use the package csv.
data.csv
Project1,folder1/file1,data
Project1,folder1/file2,data
Project1,folder1/file3,data
Project1,folder1/file4,data
Project1,folder2/file11,data
Project1,folder2/file42a,data
Project1,folder2/file42b,data
Project1,folder2/file42c,data
Project1,folder2/file42d,data
Project1,folder3/filec,data
Project1,folder3/fileb,data
Project1,folder3/filea,data
Your python program should read it by line
import csv
a = []
with open('data.csv') as csv_file:
reader = csv.reader(csv_file, delimiter=',')
for row in reader:
print(row)
# ['Project1', 'folder1/file1', 'data']
If you print the row element you will see it is a list like that
['Project1', 'folder1/file1', 'data']
If I would like to put in my list all elements in column 1, I need to put that element in my list, doing:
a.append(row[1])
Now in list a I will have a list like:
['folder1/file1', 'folder1/file2', 'folder1/file3', 'folder1/file4', 'folder2/file11', 'folder2/file42a', 'folder2/file42b', 'folder2/file42c', 'folder2/file42d', 'folder3/filec', 'folder3/fileb', 'folder3/filea']
Here is the complete code:
import csv
a = []
with open('data.csv') as csv_file:
reader = csv.reader(csv_file, delimiter=',')
for row in reader:
a.append(row[1])

Accessing Data in csv.reader

I'm trying to access a csv file of currency pairs using csv.reader. The first column shows dates, the first row shows the currency pair eg.USD/CAD. I can read in the file but cannot access the currency pairs data to perform simple calculations.
I've tried using next(x) to skip header row (currency pairs). If i do this, i get a Typeerror: csv reader is not subscriptable.
path = x
file = open(path)
dataset = csv.reader(file, delimiter = '\t',)
header = next(dataset)
header
Output shows the header row which is
['Date,USD,Index,CNY,JPY,EUR,KRW,GBP,SGD,INR,THB,NZD,TWD,MYR,IDR,VND,AED,PGK,HKD,CAD,CHF,SEK,SDR']
I expect to be able to access the underlying currency pairs but i'm getting the type error as noted above. Is there a simple way to access the currency pairs, for example I want to use USD.describe() to get simple statistics on the USD currency pair.
How can i move from this stage to accessing the data underlying the header row?

try this example
import csv
with open('file.csv') as csv_file:
csv_reader = csv.Reader(csv_file, delimiter='\t')
line_count = 0
for row in csv_reader:
print(f'\t{row[0]} {row[1]} {row[3]}')

It's apparent from the output of your header row that the columns are comma-delimited rather than tab-delimited, so instead of passing delimiter = '\t' to csv.reader, you should let it use the default delimiter ',' instead:
dataset = csv.reader(file)

If you need to elaborate some statistics pandas is your friend. No need to use the csv module, use pandas.read_csv.
import pandas
filename = 'path/of/file.csv'
dataset = pandas.read_csv(filename, sep = '\t') #or whatever the separator is
pandas.read_csv uses the first line as the header automatically.
To see statistics, simply do:
dataset.describe()
Or for a single column:
dataset['column_name'].describe()

Are you sure that your delimiter is '\t'? In first row your delimiter is ','... Anyway you can skip first row by doing file.readline() before using it by csv.reader:
import csv
example = """Date,USD,Index,CNY,JPY,EUR,KRW,GBP,SGD,INR,THB,NZD,TWD,MYR,IDR,VND,AED,PGK,HKD,CAD,CHF,SEK,SDR
1-2-3\tabc\t1.1\t1.2
4-5-6\txyz\t2.1\t2.2
"""
with open('demo.csv', 'w') as f:
f.write(example)
with open('demo.csv') as f:
f.readline()
reader = csv.reader(f, delimiter='\t')
for row in reader:
print(row)
# ['1-2-3', 'abc', '1.1', '1.2']
# ['4-5-6', 'xyz', '2.1', '2.2']
I think that you need something else... Can you add to your question:
example of first 3 lines in your csv
Example of what you'd like to access:
is using row[0], row[1] enough for you?
or do you want "named" access like row['Date'], row['USD'],
or you want something more complex like data_by_date['2019-05-01']['USD']

Making Python ignore CSV separator instruction [duplicate]

I am asking Python to print the minimum number from a column of CSV data, but the top row is the column number, and I don't want Python to take the top row into account. How can I make sure Python ignores the first line?
This is the code so far:
import csv
with open('all16.csv', 'rb') as inf:
incsv = csv.reader(inf)
column = 1
datatype = float
data = (datatype(column) for row in incsv)
least_value = min(data)
print least_value
Could you also explain what you are doing, not just give the code? I am very very new to Python and would like to make sure I understand everything.

You could use an instance of the csv module's Sniffer class to deduce the format of a CSV file and detect whether a header row is present along with the built-in next() function to skip over the first row only when necessary:
import csv
with open('all16.csv', 'r', newline='') as file:
has_header = csv.Sniffer().has_header(file.read(1024))
file.seek(0) # Rewind.
reader = csv.reader(file)
if has_header:
next(reader) # Skip header row.
column = 1
datatype = float
data = (datatype(row[column]) for row in reader)
least_value = min(data)
print(least_value)
Since datatype and column are hardcoded in your example, it would be slightly faster to process the row like this:
data = (float(row[1]) for row in reader)
Note: the code above is for Python 3.x. For Python 2.x use the following line to open the file instead of what is shown:
with open('all16.csv', 'rb') as file:

To skip the first line just call:
next(inf)
Files in Python are iterators over lines.

Borrowed from python cookbook,
A more concise template code might look like this:
import csv
with open('stocks.csv') as f:
f_csv = csv.reader(f)
headers = next(f_csv)
for row in f_csv:
# Process row ...

In a similar use case I had to skip annoying lines before the line with my actual column names. This solution worked nicely. Read the file first, then pass the list to csv.DictReader.
with open('all16.csv') as tmp:
# Skip first line (if any)
next(tmp, None)
# {line_num: row}
data = dict(enumerate(csv.DictReader(tmp)))

You would normally use next(incsv) which advances the iterator one row, so you skip the header. The other (say you wanted to skip 30 rows) would be:
from itertools import islice
for row in islice(incsv, 30, None):
# process

use csv.DictReader instead of csv.Reader.
If the fieldnames parameter is omitted, the values in the first row of the csvfile will be used as field names. you would then be able to access field values using row["1"] etc

Python 2.x
csvreader.next()
Return the next row of the reader’s iterable object as a list, parsed
according to the current dialect.
csv_data = csv.reader(open('sample.csv'))
csv_data.next() # skip first row
for row in csv_data:
print(row) # should print second row
Python 3.x
csvreader.__next__()
Return the next row of the reader’s iterable object as a list (if the
object was returned from reader()) or a dict (if it is a DictReader
instance), parsed according to the current dialect. Usually you should
call this as next(reader).
csv_data = csv.reader(open('sample.csv'))
csv_data.__next__() # skip first row
for row in csv_data:
print(row) # should print second row

The documentation for the Python 3 CSV module provides this example:
with open('example.csv', newline='') as csvfile:
dialect = csv.Sniffer().sniff(csvfile.read(1024))
csvfile.seek(0)
reader = csv.reader(csvfile, dialect)
# ... process CSV file contents here ...
The Sniffer will try to auto-detect many things about the CSV file. You need to explicitly call its has_header() method to determine whether the file has a header line. If it does, then skip the first row when iterating the CSV rows. You can do it like this:
if sniffer.has_header():
for header_row in reader:
break
for data_row in reader:
# do something with the row

this might be a very old question but with pandas we have a very easy solution
import pandas as pd
data=pd.read_csv('all16.csv',skiprows=1)
data['column'].min()
with skiprows=1 we can skip the first row then we can find the least value using data['column'].min()

The new 'pandas' package might be more relevant than 'csv'. The code below will read a CSV file, by default interpreting the first line as the column header and find the minimum across columns.
import pandas as pd
data = pd.read_csv('all16.csv')
data.min()

Because this is related to something I was doing, I'll share here.
What if we're not sure if there's a header and you also don't feel like importing sniffer and other things?
If your task is basic, such as printing or appending to a list or array, you could just use an if statement:
# Let's say there's 4 columns
with open('file.csv') as csvfile:
csvreader = csv.reader(csvfile)
# read first line
first_line = next(csvreader)
# My headers were just text. You can use any suitable conditional here
if len(first_line) == 4:
array.append(first_line)
# Now we'll just iterate over everything else as usual:
for row in csvreader:
array.append(row)

Well, my mini wrapper library would do the job as well.
>>> import pyexcel as pe
>>> data = pe.load('all16.csv', name_columns_by_row=0)
>>> min(data.column[1])
Meanwhile, if you know what header column index one is, for example "Column 1", you can do this instead:
>>> min(data.column["Column 1"])

For me the easiest way to go is to use range.
import csv
with open('files/filename.csv') as I:
reader = csv.reader(I)
fulllist = list(reader)
# Starting with data skipping header
for item in range(1, len(fulllist)):
# Print each row using "item" as the index value
print (fulllist[item])

I would convert csvreader to list, then pop the first element
import csv
with open(fileName, 'r') as csvfile:
csvreader = csv.reader(csvfile)
data = list(csvreader) # Convert to list
data.pop(0) # Removes the first row
for row in data:
print(row)

I would use tail to get rid of the unwanted first line:
tail -n +2 $INFIL | whatever_script.py

just add [1:]
example below:
data = pd.read_csv("/Users/xyz/Desktop/xyxData/xyz.csv", sep=',', header=None)**[1:]**
that works for me in iPython

Python 3.X
Handles UTF8 BOM + HEADER
It was quite frustrating that the csv module could not easily get the header, there is also a bug with the UTF-8 BOM (first char in file).
This works for me using only the csv module:
import csv
def read_csv(self, csv_path, delimiter):
with open(csv_path, newline='', encoding='utf-8') as f:
# https://bugs.python.org/issue7185
# Remove UTF8 BOM.
txt = f.read()[1:]
# Remove header line.
header = txt.splitlines()[:1]
lines = txt.splitlines()[1:]
# Convert to list.
csv_rows = list(csv.reader(lines, delimiter=delimiter))
for row in csv_rows:
value = row[INDEX_HERE]

Simple Solution is to use csv.DictReader()
import csv
def read_csv(file): with open(file, 'r') as file:
reader = csv.DictReader(file)
for row in reader:
print(row["column_name"]) # Replace the name of column header.

Compare time in Python 2

I get a .csv file with values inside and one of the columns contains durations in the format hh:mm:ss for example 06:42:13 (6 hours, 42 minutes and 13 seconds). Now I want to compare this time with a given time for example 00:00:00 because I have to handle the information in that row different.
time is the value I got out of the .csv file
if time == 00:00:00:
do something
else:
do something different
Thats what I want but it obviously doesn't work how I did it. I thought python stored the time as a String but when i compared it like this:
if time == "00:00:00":
it didn't work either.
Thats how I get the values out of the .csv file:
import csv
import_list = []
with open("input.csv", "r") as csvfile:
inputreader = csv.reader(csvfile, delimiter=';')
for row in inputreader:
import_list.append(row)
The .csv file looks like this:
Name; Duration; Tests; Warnings; Errors
Test1; 06:42:13; 2000; 2; 1
Test2; 00:00:00; 0; 0; 0
and so on.

Try it like this:
if time == " 00:00:00":
...
You have a trailing space at the beginning.
Alternatively you can change your code into this:
import csv
import_list = []
with open("input.csv", "r") as csvfile:
inputreader = csv.reader(csvfile, delimiter=';')
for row in inputreader:
import_list.append([item.strip() for item in row])

Do this instead:
if time.strip() == "00:00:00":
do something
else:
do something different

Instead of doing string comparisions, using inbuilt datetime library to create datetime objects. Use datetime.strptime to convert date string.

Sorting a table in python

I am creating a league table for a 6 a side football league and I am attempting to sort it by the points column and then display it in easygui. The code I have so far is this:
data = csv.reader(open('table.csv'), delimiter = ',')
sortedlist = sorted(data, key=operator.itemgetter(7))
with open("Newtable.csv", "wb") as f:
fileWriter = csv.writer(f, delimiter=',')
for row in sortedlist:
fileWriter.writerow(row)
os.remove("table.csv")
os.rename("Newtable.csv", "table.csv")
os.close
The number 7 relates to the points column in my csv file. I have a problem with Newtable only containing the teams information that has the highest points and the table.csv is apparently being used by another process and so cannot be removed.
If anyone has any suggestions on how to fix this it would be appreciated.

If the indentation in your post is actually the indentation in your script (and not a copy-paste error), then the problem is obvious:
os.rename() is executed during the for loop (which means that it's called once per line in the CSV file!), at a point in time where Newtable.csv is still open (not by a different process but by your script itself), so the operation fails.
You don't need to close f, by the way - the with statement takes care of that for you. What you do need to close is data - that file is also still open when the call occurs.
Finally, since a csv object contains strings, and strings are sorted alphabetically, not numerically (so "10" comes before "2"), you need to sort according to the numerical value of the string, not the string itself.
You probably want to do something like
with open('table.csv', 'rb') as infile:
data = csv.reader(infile, delimiter = ',')
sortedlist = [next(data)] + sorted(data, key=lambda x: int(x[7])) # or float?
# next(data) reads the header before sorting the rest
with open("Newtable.csv", "wb") as f:
fileWriter = csv.writer(f, delimiter=',')
fileWriter.writerows(sortedList) # No for loop needed :)
os.remove("table.csv")
os.rename("Newtable.csv", "table.csv")

I'd suggest using pandas:
Assuming an input file like this:
team,points
team1, 5
team2, 6
team3, 2
You could do:
import pandas as pd
a = pd.read_csv('table.csv')
b=a.sort('points',ascending=False)
b.to_csv('table.csv',index=False)