'str' object has no attribute 'decode' in python with unicodecsv

Question

The following code gives an error in python 3.8, with networkx, unicodecsv

with open('hero-network.csv', 'r') as data:
    reader = csv.reader(data)
    **for row in reader:**
        graph.add_edge(*row)

AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'decode'

Answer 1

unicodescv.reader expects a file opened in binary mode, because, in theory at least, it is going to work out how to decode the bytes.

with open('hero-network.csv', 'rb') as data:   # the mode is 'rb', not 'r'
    reader = csv.reader(data)
    for row in reader:
        graph.add_edge(*row)

As pointed out in the comments by jramsey, unicodecsv is more useful for Python2, when the standard library's csv module's unicode handling was poor. In Python 3 you can specify an encoding when you open the file and pass the resulting file object to the standard library's csv module.

Answer 2

reader method in csv accept a reader not a str.

Check this post.

Answer 3

That error happens when you try to decode a str that is already decoded. Are you passing the parameters correctly?

Source: 'str' object has no attribute 'decode'. Python 3 error?