{"id":126001,"date":"2022-06-25T07:17:31","date_gmt":"2022-06-25T07:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.finxter.com\/?p=439023"},"modified":"2022-06-25T07:17:31","modified_gmt":"2022-06-25T07:17:31","slug":"python-convert-csv-to-text-file-csv-to-txt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2022\/06\/25\/python-convert-csv-to-text-file-csv-to-txt\/","title":{"rendered":"Python Convert CSV to Text File (.csv to .txt)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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5\/5 – (1 vote) <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Basic Challenge<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the content of an example CSV file \"my_file.csv\"<\/code> used in our code snippet below:<\/p>\n

Name,Job,Age,Income\nAlice,Programmer,23,110000\nBob,Executive,34,90000\nCarl,Sales,45,50000<\/pre>\n
If you visualize this CSV in table form, it looks like this:<\/p>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Name<\/th>\nJob<\/th>\nAge<\/th>\nIncome<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Alice<\/td>\nProgrammer<\/td>\n23<\/td>\n110000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bob<\/td>\nExecutive<\/td>\n34<\/td>\n90000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Carl<\/td>\nSales<\/td>\n45<\/td>\n50000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n
The basic problem is to convert the CSV file \"my_file.csv\"<\/code> to a new TXT file \"my_file.txt\"<\/code> as is without changing its content<\/p>\n
Name,Job,Age,Income\nAlice,Programmer,23,110000\nBob,Executive,34,90000\nCarl,Sales,45,50000<\/pre>\n
We start with exploring this basic challenge and build from there by changing the delimiter and using Pandas to access individual columns.<\/p>\n
But first things first: How to convert a CSV file to a TXT file without changing its contents?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
Method 1: CSV to TXT Unchanged<\/h2>\n
If you want to keep the content (including the delimiter ','<\/code>) in the CSV file unmodified, the conversion is simple: read the .csv<\/code> file and write its content into a new .txt<\/code> file using the open()<\/a><\/code>, read()<\/a><\/code>, and write()<\/a><\/code> functions without importing any library.<\/p>\n
In other words, perform the three steps to write a CSV to a TXT file unmodified:<\/p>\n
    \n
  1. Open the CSV file in reading mode and the TXT file in writing mode.<\/li>\n
  2. Read the CSV file and store it in a variable.<\/li>\n
  3. Write the content into the TXT file.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    Here’s the code snippet that solves our basic challenge:<\/p>\n
    # 1. Open the CSV file in reading mode and the TXT file in writing mode\nwith open('my_file.csv', 'r') as f_in, open('my_file.txt', 'w') as f_out: # 2. Read the CSV file and store in variable content = f_in.read() # 3. Write the content into the TXT file f_out.write(content)<\/pre>\n
    \"\ud83d\ude32\" Little-Known Fact<\/strong>: Python allows multiple expressions<\/em> in the context manager<\/a> (with<\/code> opening line) if you separate them with a comma. <\/p>\n
    The content of the .csv<\/code> and .txt<\/code> files is identical:<\/p>\n
    Name,Job,Age,Income\nAlice,Programmer,23,110000\nBob,Executive,34,90000\nCarl,Sales,45,50000<\/pre>\n
    So far, so good. But what if you have a slightly different problem:<\/p>\n
    Method 2: CSV to TXT Empty Space Delimiter<\/h2>\n
    Challenge<\/strong>: How to convert a CSV file to a TXT file in Python by replacing the delimiter ','<\/code> with the empty space ' '<\/code>?<\/p>\n
    Example<\/strong>: Convert the following file 'my_file.csv'<\/code>…<\/p>\n
    Name,Job,Age,Income\nAlice,Programmer,23,110000\nBob,Executive,34,90000\nCarl,Sales,45,50000<\/pre>\n
    … to this file 'my_file.txt'<\/code> …<\/p>\n
    Name Job Age Income\nAlice Programmer 23 110000\nBob Executive 34 90000\nCarl Sales 45 50000<\/pre>\n
    Here’s the simple solution to this challenge:<\/p>\n
    If you want to change the delimiter ','<\/code> to an empty string ' '<\/code> in the new TXT file, read the .csv<\/code> file and write its content into a new .txt<\/code> file using the open()<\/a><\/code>, read()<\/a><\/code>, string.replace()<\/a><\/code>, and write()<\/a><\/code> functions without importing any library.<\/p>\n
    To convert a CSV to a TXT file in Python, perform the following steps:<\/p>\n
      \n
    1. Open the CSV file in reading mode and the TXT file in writing mode.<\/li>\n
    2. Read the CSV file into a string.<\/li>\n
    3. Create a new string by replacing all occurrences of the delimiter ','<\/code> with the empty string ' '<\/code>. <\/li>\n
    4. Write the content into the TXT file.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      with open('my_file.csv', 'r') as f_in, open('my_file.txt', 'w') as f_out: content = f_in.read().replace(',', ' ') f_out.write(content)\n<\/pre>\n
      So far, so good. But in Python, there are always many ways to solve a problem. Let’s have a look at a powerful alternative to the no-library approach used before:<\/p>\n
      Method 3: CSV to TXT using Pandas<\/h2>\n
      Assuming you’ve already installed pandas<\/a> in your local environment, you can write a CSV to a TXT file in Python pandas<\/strong> using the following four steps:<\/p>\n
        \n
      1. Import the pan<\/a>d<\/a>as<\/a><\/code> library.<\/li>\n
      2. Read the CSV file into a DataFrame using pd.read_csv()<\/a><\/code>.<\/li>\n
      3. Convert the DataFrame to a String using the built-in str()<\/a><\/code> function.<\/li>\n
      4. Print the string to a file using the file argument of the print()<\/a><\/code> function, for example.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        Here’s the basic Python example:<\/p>\n
        import pandas as pd df = pd.read_csv('my_file.csv')\ncontent = str(df)\nprint(content, file=open('my_file.txt', 'w'))<\/pre>\n
        \"\ud83d\ude32\" Little-Known Fact<\/strong>: Python’s print()<\/a><\/code> function allows you to write a string directly into a file <\/a>object if you use the file<\/code> argument as shown in the code snippet.<\/p>\n
        The output of the previous code snippet is as follows:<\/p>\n
         Name Job Age Income\n0 Alice Programmer 23 110000\n1 Bob Executive 34 90000\n2 Carl Sales 45 50000<\/pre>\n
        Beautiful, isn’t it? \"\ud83d\udc9c\"<\/p>\n
        Let’s have a look at the last variation of the “CSV to TXT” problem addressed in this tutorial:<\/p>\n
        Method 4: CSV Columns or Rows to TXT using Pandas<\/h2>\n
        How to write one or more individual columns or rows of the CSV file into a TXT file using Python Pandas?<\/strong><\/p>\n
          \n
        1. Import the pan<\/a>d<\/a>as<\/a><\/code> library.<\/li>\n
        2. Read the CSV file into a DataFrame using pd.read_csv()<\/a><\/code>.<\/li>\n
        3. Select the column(s) or row(s) to write into the TXT file from the DataFrame using Pandas indexing or slicing<\/a>.<\/li>\n
        4. Call df.to_string()<\/code> to convert the DataFrame to a string in a human-readable way.<\/li>\n
        5. Print the string to a file using the file argument of the print()<\/a><\/code> function, for example.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
          import pandas as pd df = pd.read_csv('my_file.csv')\ncontent = str(df['Name'])\nprint(content, file=open('my_file.txt', 'w'))<\/pre>\n
          The content in a new file 'my_file.txt'<\/code>:<\/p>\n
          0 Alice\n1 Bob\n2 Carl<\/pre>\n
          Of course, you can also select individual rows or multiple columns like so:<\/p>\n
          import pandas as pd df = pd.read_csv('my_file.csv')\ncontent = df['Name'][:2].to_string()\nprint(content, file=open('my_file.txt', 'w'))<\/pre>\n
          The content of the new file 'my_file.txt'<\/code> shows that only the first two rows have been taken due to the slicing<\/a> operation [:2]<\/code> in the previous code snippet:<\/p>\n
          0 Alice\n1 Bob<\/pre>\n
          Done! You’ve earned some programming enjoyment:<\/p>\n
          Programmer Humor<\/h2>\n
          \"\u2753\" Question:<\/strong> How did the programmer die<\/em><\/strong> in the shower? ☠<\/p>\n
          ❗ Answer<\/strong>: They read the shampoo bottle instructions: 
          Lather. Rinse. Repeat.<\/strong><\/em><\/code><\/p>\n
          Conclusion<\/h2>\n
          I hope you enjoyed reading this article and learned something new. Feel free to join our email newsletter with free cheat sheets and weekly Python tutorials:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
          5\/5 – (1 vote) Basic Challenge Here\u2019s the content of an example CSV file “my_file.csv” used in our code snippet below: Name,Job,Age,Income Alice,Programmer,23,110000 Bob,Executive,34,90000 Carl,Sales,45,50000 If you visualize this CSV in table form, it looks like this: Name Job Age Income Alice Programmer 23 110000 Bob Executive 34 90000 Carl Sales 45 50000 The basic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[857],"tags":[73,468,528],"class_list":["post-126001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-python-tut","tag-programming","tag-python","tag-tutorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126001\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}