44. Reading Delimited Files

Sometimes, you need to read in files from other programs containing information such as student records or address details.
We use files known as comma separated values files
They are simply text files with a different extension (.csv)
Each line will have multiple items on it, each usually separated by a comma. It might look like the example below
When working with files, make sure they are NOT open in notepad whilst Python is running
There should be NO spaces between line items

#Open file for reading
file = open("addresses.csv","r")

#Read into list and split at commas
for line in file:

    #Strip the \n from the end of the line
    line = line.strip("\n")

    #Split the line into separate variables
    name,address,state,phone = line.split(",")

    #Print the variables
    print(name,address,state,phone)

#Close file, contents now in list
file.close()

Tasks

Create a suitable .csv file with details of 5 people in it
Type in the code above and make sure it works
Save and label your code

Extension Task

This code is very basic and will break very easily if the file does not exist. A function called exists() can be used to check for a file before trying to open it. Do some research and try to implement a feature that detects if the file exists

Tasks

Extension Task

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