all Python 3Files & I/Ofunction

csv.reader()

csv — reading

Reads CSV row by row: returns an iterator that yields each record as a list of strings. It handles quotes, commas inside fields and escaping for you.

Syntax

csv.reader(csvfile, dialect='excel', **fmtparams)

Every value comes back as a string, even numbers: you must convert '30' to int yourself. Open the file with newline='', or a quoted field containing a line break is parsed wrongly. Do not split lines with split(','): '"Ivanov, Ivan"' breaks in two, while reader returns one field. The reader is single-use like any iterator: a second pass yields nothing.

Examples

import csv
import io
buf = io.StringIO('name,age\n"Ivanov, Ivan",30\n')
for row in csv.reader(buf):
    print(row)  # → ['name', 'age'] / ['Ivanov, Ivan', '30']

import csv
with open('data.csv', 'w', newline='', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    f.write('a;b\n1;2\n')
with open('data.csv', newline='', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    rows = list(csv.reader(f, delimiter=';'))
print(rows)  # → [['a', 'b'], ['1', '2']]

See also

Open in the full glossarydocs.python.orgReport an inaccuracy