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How would I validate that a CSV file is delimited by certain character (in this case a backtick ( ` ) )

I have these huge CSV files that I need to validate; need to make sure they are all delimited by back tick `. I have a reader opening each file and printing it's content. Just wondering the different ways you all would go about validating that each value is delimited by the back tick character
for csvfile in self.fullcsvpathfiles:
#print("file..")
with open(self.fullcsvpathfiles[0], mode='r') as csv_file:
csv_reader = csv.DictReader(csv_file, delimiter = "`")
for row in csv_reader:
print (row)
Not sure how to go about validating that each value is seperated by a backtick and throw an error if otherwise. These tables are huge (not that thats a problem for electricity ;) )

Method 1
With pandas library you could use pandas.read_csv() function to read the csv file with sep='`' (it specifies the delimiter). If it parses the file to a dataframe in a good shape, then you could almost be sure that's good.
Also, to automate the validation process, you could check if the number of NaN values in the dataframe is within an acceptable level. Assume your csv files do not have many blanks (so only a few NaN values are expected), you could compare the number of NaN values with a threshold you set.
import pandas as pd
nan_threshold = 20
for csvfile in self.fullcsvpathfiles:
my_df = pd.read_csv(csvfile, sep="`") # if it fails at this step, then something (probably the delimiter) must be wrong
nans = my_df.is_null().sum()
if nans > nan_threshold:
print(csvfile) # make some warning here
Refer to this page for more information about pandas.read_csv().
Method 2
As mentioned in the comments, you could also check if the number of occurrence of the delimiter is equal in each line of the file.
num_of_sep = -1 # initial value
# assume you are at the step of reading a file f
for line in f:
num = line.count("`")
if num_of_sep == -1:
num_of_sep = num
elif num != num_of_sep:
print('Some warning here')

If you don't know how many columns are in a file, you could check to make sure all the rows have the same number of columns - if you expect the header (first) to always be correct use it to determine the number of columns.
for csvfile in self.fullcsvpathfiles:
with open(self.fullcsvpathfiles[0], mode='r') as csv_file:
csv_reader = csv.DictReader(csv_file, delimiter = "`")
ncols = len(next(csv_reader))
if not all(len(row)==ncols for row in reader):
#do something
for csvfile in self.fullcsvpathfiles:
with open(self.fullcsvpathfiles[0], mode='r') as f:
row = next(f)
ncols = row.count('`')
if not all(row.count('`')==ncols for row in f):
#do something
If you know how many columns are in a file...
for csvfile in self.fullcsvpathfiles:
with open(self.fullcsvpathfiles[0], mode='r') as csv_file:
#figure out how many columns it is suppose to have here?
ncols = special_process()
csv_reader = csv.DictReader(csv_file, delimiter = "`")
if not all(len(row)==ncols for row in reader):
#do something
for csvfile in self.fullcsvpathfiles:
#figure out how many columns it is suppose to have here?
ncols = special_process()
with open(self.fullcsvpathfiles[0], mode='r') as f:
#figure out how many columns it is suppose to have here?
if not all(row.count('`')==ncols for row in f):
#do something

If you know the number of expected elements, you could inspect each line
f=open(filename,'r')
for line in f:
line=line.split("`")
if line!=numElements:
raise Exception("Bad file")
If you know the delimiter that is being accidentally inserted, you could also try to recover instead of throwing exception. Perhaps something like:
line="`".join(line).replace(wrongDelimiter,"`").split("`")
Of course, once you're that far into reading the file, there's no great need for using an external library to read the data. Just go ahead and use it.

Trying to convert a CSV file to int in Python [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.

CSV read specific row

I have a CSV file with 100 rows.
How do I read specific rows?
I want to read say the 9th line or the 23rd line etc?

You could use a list comprehension to filter the file like so:
with open('file.csv') as fd:
reader=csv.reader(fd)
interestingrows=[row for idx, row in enumerate(reader) if idx in (28,62)]
# now interestingrows contains the 28th and the 62th row after the header

Use list to grab all the rows at once as a list. Then access your target rows by their index/offset in the list. For example:
#!/usr/bin/env python
import csv
with open('source.csv') as csv_file:
csv_reader = csv.reader(csv_file)
rows = list(csv_reader)
print(rows[8])
print(rows[22])

You simply skip the necessary number of rows:
with open("test.csv", "rb") as infile:
r = csv.reader(infile)
for i in range(8): # count from 0 to 7
next(r) # and discard the rows
row = next(r) # "row" contains row number 9 now

You could read all of them and then use normal lists to find them.
with open('bigfile.csv','rb') as longishfile:
reader=csv.reader(longishfile)
rows=[r for r in reader]
print row[9]
print row[88]
If you have a massive file, this can kill your memory but if the file's got less than 10,000 lines you shouldn't run into any big slowdowns.

You can do something like this :
with open('raw_data.csv') as csvfile:
readCSV = list(csv.reader(csvfile, delimiter=','))
row_you_want = readCSV[index_of_row_you_want]

May be this could help you , using pandas you can easily do it with loc
'''
Reading 3rd record using pandas -> (loc)
Note : Index start from 0
If want to read second record then 3-1 -> 2
loc[2]` -> read second row and `:` -> entire row details
'''
import pandas as pd
df = pd.read_csv('employee_details.csv')
df.loc[[2],:]
Output :

Reading in Excel file with corrupt data using PYTHON

I am trying to read in a table from a .CSV file which should have 5 columns.
But, some rows have corrupt data..making it more than 5 columns.
How do I reject those rows and continue reading further ?
*Using
temp = read_table(folder + r'\temp.txt, sep=r'\t')
Just gives an error and stops the program*
I am new to Python...please help
Thanks

Look into using Python's csv module.
Without testing the damaged file it is difficult to say if this will do the trick however the csvreader reads a csv file's rows as a list of strings so you could potentially check if the list has 5 elements and proceed that way.
A code example:
out = []
with open('file.csv', 'rb') as csvfile:
reader = csv.reader(csvfile, delimeter=' ')
for row in reader:
if len(row) == 5:
out.append(row)

How to ignore the first line of data when processing CSV data?

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.