Python Academy · Lesson

Reading CSV with csv.reader

Read CSV files row by row and access columns by index.

Introduction

Python's csv module handles the complexities of CSV files: quoted fields, delimiters, and different line endings.

with open('data.csv', newline='') as f: is the recommended way — newline='' lets the csv module handle line endings.

import csv, io
sample = 'name,age,city\nAlice,30,NYC\nBob,25,LA'
reader = csv.reader(io.StringIO(sample))
for row in reader:
    print(row)