Writing a nice formatted csv file

[redcic]

Hi all,

I use the csv module of Python to write a file. My code is of the
form :

cw = csv.writer(open("out.txt", "wb"))
cw.writerow([1,2,3])
cw.writerow([10,20,30])

And i get an out.txt file looking like:
1,2,3
10,20,30

Whereas what I'd like to get is:
1, 2, 3,
10, 20, 30

which is more readable.

Can anybody help me to do so ?

Thanks,

Cédric

 

[7stud]

Hi all,

I use the csv module of Python to write a file. My code is of the
form :

cw = csv.writer(open("out.txt", "wb"))
cw.writerow([1,2,3])
cw.writerow([10,20,30])

And i get an out.txt file looking like:
1,2,3
10,20,30

Whereas what I'd like to get is:
1, 2, 3,
10, 20, 30

which is more readable.

Can anybody help me to do so ?

Thanks,

Cédric

cvs files are constructed for efficient processing not formatting so
that you can read them easier. If you want a formatted file, then
construct one.

 

[Sebastian Bassi]

And i get an out.txt file looking like:
1,2,3
10,20,30
Whereas what I'd like to get is:
1, 2, 3,
10, 20, 30
which is more readable.

The idea behind csv module is to produce and read csv files that are
"machine readable" rather than "human readable", so I think you should
write the file "by hand" to take into account those whitespace.

 

[redcic]

Well then how can I format a file ?

Thanks for your help,

Cédric

Hi all,

I use the csv module of Python to write a file. My code is of the
form :

cw = csv.writer(open("out.txt", "wb"))
cw.writerow([1,2,3])
cw.writerow([10,20,30])

And i get an out.txt file looking like:
1,2,3
10,20,30

Whereas what I'd like to get is:
1, 2, 3,
10, 20, 30

which is more readable.

Can anybody help me to do so ?

Cédric

cvs files are constructed for efficient processing not formatting so
that you can read them easier. If you want a formatted file, then
construct one.

 

[dustin]

Well then how can I format a file ?

for row in rows:
print "".join([ "%-6s" % ("%d," % cell) for cell in row ])

The "%-6s" formats each column to be no less than six characters long;
the "%d," formats the number with a comma after it.

This won't be quite what you want, since you've comma-aligned all of the
fields after the first, but it should be readable.
<snip>

 

[Jon Clements]

Hi all,

I use the csv module of Python to write a file. My code is of the
form :

cw = csv.writer(open("out.txt", "wb"))
cw.writerow([1,2,3])
cw.writerow([10,20,30])

And i get an out.txt file looking like:
1,2,3
10,20,30

Whereas what I'd like to get is:
1, 2, 3,
10, 20, 30

which is more readable.

Can anybody help me to do so ?

How about pre-formatting the columns before hand before using
something like:

# List of formatting to apply to each column (change this to suit)
format = ['%03d', '%10s', '%10s']

data = [1, 10, 100]
print [fmt % d for fmt,d in zip(format,data)]

Results in: ['001', ' 10', ' 100']

Then write that using the CSV module.

hth

Jon.

 

[Dave Borne]

Whereas what I'd like to get is:

1, 2, 3,
10, 20, 30

(without trying this myself first...)
You might try setting up a csv dialect with a delimiter of ',\t' then
using a reader that can set tab stops for display.

-Dave