Python provides the csv module for reading, writing and performing other forms of file handling in CSV formats. Most programming languages like Python support handling files in CSV and also transforming them to other formats like JSON. Since spreadsheets and databases like MS SQL can be imported and exported as CSV files, it’s important to know how to handle data served in CSV format programmatically. The first row of data may optionally serve as the header, identifying each column of data below it. When opened, the content of a CSV file looks like this: Employee Id,First Name,Gender,Start Date,Last Login Time,Salary,Bonus %,Senior Management,Teamġ,Douglas,Male,12:42 PM,6.945,TRUE,Marketingģ,Maria,Female,11:17 AM,11.858,FALSE,FinanceĤ,Jerry,Male,1:00 PM,138705,9.34,FinanceĪs seen above, the comma delimiter,, is used to separate each specific piece of data in the file. For the purposes of this article, we’ll just be dealing with CSV files that use commas as delimiters (known as RFC 4180). Sometimes the term “CSV” can be used to describe formats with other types of separators, such as colons ( :), semicolons ( ) and tabs ( ). This is a popular format used for exporting and importing data from databases and spreadsheets.Īs the name suggests, each piece of data in a CSV file is separated by a comma ( ,). We’ll explore how to use the csv module and also look at examples that help understand how it works.Ī CSV (comma-separated values) file is a text file format that allows data to be saved in a tabular structure. In this article, we’ll learn how to use Python to read from and write data to CSV files, and how to convert CSV files to JSON format and vice versa.

Downloading Data File Converter 5.3.4