How to import CSV file in Python

A CSV (Comma Separated Values) is a plain text file format that stores data in a tabular form, similar to a spreadsheet or database, each line in the file represents a row in the table and each field(column) within that row is separated by a comma. It’s an easy and most commonly used way to share and store data.

To load a CSV file in Python, you need a library called “pandas”, which is a powerful library that provides easy to use data structures and data analysis tools. You first need to install pandas by running a command, then you can import it in your script. Once the library is imported you can use its function to read the CSV file.

The most commonly used function in pandas to read a CSV file is read_csv(). With this function you can specify the location of the file and it will return a DataFrame, which is a 2-dimensional labeled data structure similar to a spreadsheet or SQL table.

Additionally, pandas can also handle other file formats such as Excel, JSON, SQL and more using similar functions with slight change in their name like read_excel, read_json etc.

In summary, pandas is a powerful library that makes it easy to import and work with CSV files in python, and also provide options to work with various other file formats.

 

In this Machine Learning Recipe, you will learn: How to import CSV file in Python.

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