convert items in csv column to list using python

Question

So i have been reading answers on StackOverflow and haven't been able to find this specific doubt that i have.

I have a csv with a single column with values as follows:

**Values**
abc
xyz
bcd,fgh
tew,skdh,fsh

As you can see above some cells have more than one value separated by commas, i used the following code:

with open('dat.csv', 'rb') as inputfile:
reader = csv.reader(inputfile)

colnames=['Keywords']
data = pandas.read_csv('dat.csv', names=colnames)   

lkn=data.values.tolist()
print lkn

The output i got was: [['abc'],['xyz'],['bcd,fgh'],['tew,skdh,fsh']] i would like to have the output as:

[['abc'],['xyz'],['bcd','fgh'],['tew','skdh','fsh']]

which i believe is a proper list of list format(fairly new to list of lists). Please do provide guidance in the right direction. Thanks!.

NB:csv file with how cells are arranged (image)

Is "tew,skdh,fsh" one string? It is usually bad practice to use commas as values in comma separated value files. Also, why is it a CSV at all? If you are trying to learn how to use the csv library then fair enough, however, would simply reading a file work for this? — James Geddes, Apr 07 '18 at 09:49

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 07 '18 at 06:35

Looking at your attached image, I'd bet that the cells have been quoted (although, to be sure, open the CSV file in a text editor, not in Excel) so you have to do the manual splitting yourself:

import csv

with open("file.csv", "r") as f:
    reader = csv.reader(f)
    your_list = [e[0].strip().split(",") for e in reader if e]

Umair Mohammad · Answer 2 · 2018-04-07T05:59:31.137

0

Try something like this :

import csv

with open('file.csv', 'r') as f:
  reader = csv.reader(f)
  your_list = list(reader)

for item in your_list:
    item = list(item)

print(your_list)

Credit : Python import csv to list

edited Apr 07 '18 at 05:59

answered Apr 07 '18 at 05:53

Umair Mohammad

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it still gives me the same output..[['abc'],['xyz'],['bcd,fgh'],['tew,skdh,fsh']], i would like to have each element inside [] in ' '. which is: [['abc'],['xyz'],['bcd','fgh'],['tew','skdh','fsh']] – Amal Sailendran Apr 07 '18 at 05:56
@AmalSailendran Please check again. The output of this code seems to be : `[['abc'], ['xyz'], ['bcd', 'fgh'], ['tew', 'skdh', 'fsh']] ` – Sruthi Apr 07 '18 at 05:58
I tried it again and found the same output. I copy pasted the code and ran it. – Amal Sailendran Apr 07 '18 at 06:04
@AmalSailendran - are you sure that the CSV you've posted looks exactly like that? Could the rows be actually within quotes? You can try setting a delimiter to a comma explicitly with `csv.reader(f, delimiter=",")` but that should be the default behavior anyway. – zwer Apr 07 '18 at 06:14

convert items in csv column to list using python

2 Answers2