Encoding a csvreader

Question

I have a latin1 encoded file. How would I do the equivalent of the following with csv?

>>> import csv
>>> with open(filepath, 'rb') as csvfile:
...     reader = csv.DictReader(csvfile, delimiter='\t', encoding='iso-8859-1')

Do you mean `encoding='latin-1'`? Sorry, I'm not seeing the difficulty... — Basic, Jul 16 '15 at 02:02
@Basic the `csv`.`DictReader` doesn't allow the setting of encoding as a parameter. — David542, Jul 16 '15 at 02:03
Ah, ok. You'll need to do something like [this](http://stackoverflow.com/a/5005573/156755) — Basic, Jul 16 '15 at 02:13

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 16 '15 at 03:10

4

with open(filepath, "r", encoding="ISO-8859-1") as csvfile:
    reader = csv.DictReader(csvfile)

answered Jul 16 '15 at 03:10

verygoodsoftwarenotvirus

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This actually didn't work when I tried it. Also I think you mean `codes.open` ? – David542 Jul 16 '15 at 05:14

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 16 '15 at 03:04

Here is a way you can do it:

def Latin1ToUnicodeDictReader(latin1_data, **kwargs):
    csv_reader = csv.DictReader(latin1_data, **kwargs)
    for row in csv_reader:
        yield {key: value.decode('iso-8859-1').encode('utf8') if value else value for key, value in row.iteritems()}

reader = Latin1ToUnicodeDictReader(csvfile, delimiter='\t')

Encoding a csvreader

2 Answers2