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

Mark Hackett mark.hackett at metoffice.gov.uk
Wed Jan 30 13:14:09 CET 2013

On Wednesday 30 Jan 2013, Steven D'Aprano wrote:

On 30/01/13 21:32, Mark Hackett wrote: > If you don't know what's in the csv file at all, then how do you know > what you're supposed to do with it.

Maybe you're processing the file without caring what the column names are,

If you don't care, then you shouldn't be using a dictionary because you have to know to say what one you want.

but you still need to map column name to column contents.

Why? You said this hypothetical reckless person doesn't care.

This is no more unusual than processing a dict where you don't know the keys: you just iterate over them.

Which is only used for printing the info out.

There's a much easier way to do that:

"cat file.csv"

Or maybe you're scanning the file for one specific column name, and you don't care what the other names are.

Then you'll know if it's duplicated or not.

Or, most likely, you know what you are expecting in the CSV file, but because data files don't always contain what you expect, you want to be notified if there is something unexpected rather than just have it silently do the wrong thing.

There's a way to do that:

"head -n1 file.csv".

You know, have a look.

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