Using data from CSV to make directories

Question

i have a .csv file such as the following:

name1,name2,name3 and so on

using Python script i am trying to have it read the .csv and make directories for each value eg: name1,name2,name3 will create these directories :name1 and name2 and name3

this is my code so far:

import os
import fileinput
textFile = 'E:/Videos/Movies/subtest/dirlist.csv'
path = "E:/Videos/Movies/subtest/"

#generate a txt file with the current names of the directories
def makeFile():
    # Open a file
    dirs = os.listdir( path )
    # This would print all the files and directories
    for file in dirs:
        #open the file
        tFO = open(textFile, "ab+")
        #write to the file, seprating each item with "||"
        tFO.write( file + ',' ) 
        #print output
        print ( file )
        #prints confirmation
        print 'file printed!'
        #close the file
        tFO.close()
    mainMenu()

def makeDirs():
    #open textFile as read only and set its varible as myListRead
    myListRead = open(textFile, 'rb+')
    #reads the x amount of lines and stores it as str
    str = myListRead.read();
    for line in str:
        os.makedirs(path + str)
    print 'directories created:', str

running this code creates the .csv as i intended, but when i run makeDirs() it makes the directory name all of the .csv (name1,name2,name3 as the foldername)

Can you print out what path + str is from your os.makedirs and post it here? — sihrc
– sihrc, Commented Jul 31, 2013 at 16:39
@sihrc path + str yields: E:/Videos/Movies/subtest/dirlist.txt,run.py — Cole Mackenzie
– Cole Mackenzie, Commented Jul 31, 2013 at 16:56

larsks · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-31 16:39:17Z

2

Your problems become immediately obvious if you add some print statements to your code.

Given an input file that looks like:

name1,name2,name3

The following code:

str = myListRead.read();
for line in str:
    print 'LINE:', line

Would print:

LINE: n
LINE: a
LINE: m
LINE: e
LINE: 1
LINE: ,
LINE: n
LINE: a
LINE: m
LINE: e
LINE: 2
LINE: ,
LINE: n
LINE: a
LINE: m
LINE: e
LINE: 3
LINE:

That is, you're iterating over characters, not comma delimited items. The read() method reads in the entire file as a single string. You get a sequence of characters, not a sequence of lines.

If you want to iterate over lines in a file, you don't need to call read(), you can just to this:

myListRead = open(textFile, 'rb+')
for line in myListRead:
    print 'LINE:', line

Which would yield:

LINE: name1,name2,name3

Of course, you're going to need to split this line on commas. You could do this:

for line in myListRead:
    for item in line.strip().split(','):
        os.makedirs(os.path.join(path, item))
        print 'created', item

You could also think about using the built-in csv module for parsing your CSV file, although that may be overkill for your particular use case.

answered Jul 31, 2013 at 16:39

larsks

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1 Comment

Cole Mackenzie Over a year ago

Thanks! The last part of code there worked for me, I also had to create the directories to a new file path as i can't create 2 of the same directory.

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