[Python-ideas] csv.DictReader could handle headers more intelligently. (original) (raw)

J. Cliff Dyer jcd at sdf.lonestar.org
Thu Jan 24 17:08:16 CET 2013

On Thu, 2013-01-24 at 07:28 -0800, Shane Green wrote:

Since every form of CSV file counts EOL as a line terminator, I think discarding empty lines preceding the headers is arguably acceptable, but do not think discarding lines of just delimiters would be. What about extending the DictReader API so it was easy to perform these actions explicitly, such as being able to discard() the field names to be re-evaluated on the next line?

I think I like this idea. There's something a little distasteful about making the user manually delve into the underlying reader, but this makes it more user-friendly and more obvious how to proceed.

For clarity's sake, what is your objection to discarding lines of delimiters? The reason I suggest doing it is that it is a common output situation when exporting Excel files or LibreCalc files that have a blank row at the top.

Cheers, Cliff

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