Taking data from text file and writing it as a .csv file in python

Question

EDIT: Thanks for the answers guys, got what I needed!!

Basically I am trying to take what I have stored in my textfile and I am trying to write that into a .csv file. In my file are tweets that I have stored and I am trying to have one tweet in each cell in my .csv file.

Right now it is only taking one tweet and creating a .csv file with it and I need it to take all of them. Any help is greatly appreciated. Here is what I have so far.

with open('reddit.txt', 'rb') as f:
reader = csv.reader(f, delimiter=':', quoting = csv.QUOTE_NONE)
for row in reader:
    print row


    cr = csv.writer(open('reddit.csv', 'wb'))
    cr.writerow(row)

You're clobbering reddit.csv with every row. You should open it before the for loop. Don't forget to close it after the loop. — Diego Basch
– Diego Basch, Commented Dec 10, 2012 at 5:55

Blender · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-10 06:06:54Z

You'll need to create the writer outside of the loop:

with open('reddit.txt', 'rb') as input_file:
    reader = csv.reader(input_file, delimiter=':', quoting = csv.QUOTE_NONE)

    with open('reddit.csv', 'wb') as output_file:
        writer = csv.writer(output_file)

        for row in reader:
            writer.writerow(row)

Although here it might be cleaner to open the files without with:

input_file = open('reddit.txt', 'rb')
output_file = open('reddit.csv', 'wb')

reader = csv.reader(input_file, delimiter=':', quoting=csv.QUOTE_NONE)
writer = csv.writer(output_file)

for row in reader:
    writer.writerow(row)

input_file.close()
output_file.close()

Or you can still use with and just have a really long line:

with open('reddit.txt', 'rb') as input_file, open('reddit.csv', 'wb') as output_file:
    reader = csv.reader(input_file, delimiter=':', quoting = csv.QUOTE_NONE)
    writer = csv.writer(output_file)

    for row in reader:
        writer.writerow(row)

In 2.7/3.x, you could do with open('reddit.txt', 'rb') as input_file, open('reddit.csv', 'wb') as output_file: to get a little less indentation going (though the line is kind of long). I do think it's worth having it in the with even if the indentation is kind of annoying, just for the guaranteed correct behavior on closing.
@Dougal: Yeah, I'm not sure if having a really long line is better or worse than having a deeply nested block. I'll add that in as well.

Israel Unterman · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-10 05:59:38Z

0

The line cr = csv.writer(open('reddit.csv', 'wb')) is inside the for loop. You need to open the file just once, place this line after

reader = csv.reader(f, delimiter=':', quoting = csv.QUOTE_NONE)

Then write to it as you did in each loop iteration.

answered Dec 10, 2012 at 5:59

Israel Unterman

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