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New in version 2.3.
The so-called CSV (Comma Separated Values) format is the most common import
and export format for spreadsheets and databases. There is no ``CSV
standard'', so the format is operationally defined by the many applications
which read and write it. The lack of a standard means that subtle
differences often exist in the data produced and consumed by different
applications. These differences can make it annoying to process CSV files
from multiple sources. Still, while the delimiters and quoting characters
vary, the overall format is similar enough that it is possible to write a
single module which can efficiently manipulate such data, hiding the details
of reading and writing the data from the programmer.
The csv module implements classes to read and write tabular data in
CSV format. It allows programmers to say, ``write this data in the format
preferred by Excel,'' or ``read data from this file which was generated by
Excel,'' without knowing the precise details of the CSV format used by
Excel. Programmers can also describe the CSV formats understood by other
applications or define their own special-purpose CSV formats.
The csv module's reader and writer objects read and
write sequences. Programmers can also read and write data in dictionary
form using the DictReader and DictWriter classes.
Note:
This version of the csv module doesn't support Unicode
input. Also, there are currently some issues regarding ASCII NUL
characters. Accordingly, all input should generally be printable
ASCII to be safe. These restrictions will be removed in the future.
Release 2.4.5, documentation updated on 18 October 2006.
See About this document... for information on suggesting changes.
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