Writing multiple strings into csv from python

Question

I have written a python web scraper and would like to output the data strings I have gotten into a csv/excel file. So far, I have a for loop that accesses multiple database websites and stores the data in a string. I would like to pop out these strings each time I complete the web scraping before moving onto the next page.

Someone suggested to create a whole repository of them or a dictionary and then reference it. I tried implementing it, but my code instead returns me a the data in one cell instead of spanning multiple cells because I have a header at the top that separates the data into my desired attributes.

Substances = []
Whole_list = []
f = open(filename)  # chemtest.txt 
for sub in f: 
    Substances.append(sub)
    print sub

for substance in Substances: 
    #some logic 
    names1 = [data ]
    Whole_list.append(names1)

with open('chemtest.csv', 'wb') as myfile:  #creates new chemtest.csv
    wr = csv.writer(myfile)
    wr.writerow(Whole_list)

So far I'm running through 2 websites as a test and my outputs are:

names1 = ['Acetaldehyde', 'Acetaldehyde', '75-07-0', 'GO1N1ZPR3B', 'CC=O']
Whole_list = [['Acetaldehyde', 'Acetaldehyde', '75-07-0', 'GO1N1ZPR3B', 'CC=O']]
names1 = ['Acetone', 'Acetone', '67-64-1', '1364PS73AF', '=O']
Whole_list = [['Acetaldehyde', 'Acetaldehyde', '75-07-0', 'GO1N1ZPR3B', 'CC=O'], ['Acetone', 'Acetone', '67-64-1', '1364PS73AF', '=O']]

What is wrong with my method exactly and how can I improve it?

Seb D. · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-06 16:51:27Z

2

Use writerows (note the s at the end). writerow is for writing one line at a time.

wr.writerows(Whole_list)

As a side note, capitalized variable names are usually reserved to classes, so prefer whole_list.

answered Jul 6, 2015 at 16:51

Seb D.

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2 Comments

Tim Pietzcker Over a year ago

This, and make sure you're using the appropriate delimiter - if all your values appear in one cell, then your Excel version might be expecting something other than a comma between columns - European Excels expect semicolons, for example. Try setting delimiter=";" when creating the writer object.

TimTom Over a year ago

Okay, thanks! @TimPietzcker: That's interesting. I'll be sure to keep that in mind. Thanks!

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