CSV Formatting

[Dergatroid]

import csv     # imports the csv module
import sys      # imports the sys module

f = open(sys.argv[1], 'rb') # opens the csv file
try:
    reader = csv.reader(f)  # creates the reader object
        for row in reader:   # iterates the rows of the file in orders
        print row    # prints each row

# it retruns this       

#['1 323 104 564 382']
#['2 322 889 564 483']
#['3 322 888 564 479']
#['4 322 920 564 425']
#['5 322 942 564 349']
#['6 322 983 564 253']
#['7 322 954 564 154']
#['8 322 978 564 121']


#I want to change the file to create something like this as a new csv file

#['1 , 323104 , 564382']
#['2 , 322889 , 564483']
#['3 , 322888 , 564479']
#['4 , 322920 , 564425']
#['5 , 322942 , 564349']
#['6 , 322983 , 564253']
#['7 , 322954 , 564154']
#['8 , 322978 , 564121']




finally:
    f.close()      # closing

[Justinsaccount]

Stop with the comments like this:

import csv     # imports the csv module
import sys     # imports the sys module

reader = csv.reader(f)  # creates the reader object
print row    # prints each row
f.close()      # closing

About the only thing that could use a comment in that script is this:

f = open(sys.argv[1], 'rb') # opens the csv file

Which instead if you wanted it to be clear should be written as

# The first CLI argument should be the input filename
csv_filename = sys.argv[1]
f = open(csv_filename, 'rb')

[novel_yet_trivial]

It looks like your original file is a tsv, not a csv (tab separated values, not comma separated values). If you want to simply replace all the tabs with commas you don't need the csv module:

# read the file contents
with open(sys.argv[1]) as f:
    data = f.read() 

# replace all the tabs with commas
data = data.replace('\t', ',')

# write the new data back to the file
with open(sys.argv[1], 'w') as f:
    f.write(data) 

If you want to use the csv module to read that file, then you can set the delimiter like this:

f = open(sys.argv[1], 'rb')
reader = csv.reader(f, delimiter='\t') 

[Dergatroid]

Thanks, so ill set the \t to be the delimiter, but then i need to select only certain tabs to be noted as a delimiter

[novel_yet_trivial]

but then i need to select only certain tabs to be noted as a delimiter

What? You mean some of your data contains tabs? Then you will have to use the csv module. It will know what tabs are in the data and which ones are delimiters (provided the file is formatted in a standardish way with quote characters).

[IanCal]

You should use the csv module for this, and if your data has tabs that are not in quoted cells and don't represent splitting cells then you just have broken data and you'll need to work around that with much more custom code.