Create a csv file with two columns | Counter mode

Question

I worked on a code that is counting the occurrencies of words in a given text document and now I would like to save the output on a csv file with two columns: one for the words and one for their frequencies.

This is the code that I am trying to replicate:

from collections import Counter
counter = Counter(['spam', 'egg', 'spam', 'egg', 'python', 'egg'])

with open('wordfile.csv', 'w') as f:
    writer = csv.writer(f, delimiter=' ')
    writer.writerow(('word', 'count'))
    writer.writerows(counter.most_common())

However, this is the output:

word countegg 3spam 2python 1

The output that I am trying to get should contain just two columns (one for the "word" adn one for the "frequency" and each row should contain a word and its occurrance in the text:

word, frequency,
the, 3165,
in, 1265,
of,1233,

When I print the output with the code:

print(open('wordfile.csv', 'rb').read())

I get:

b'word count\r\r\negg 3\r\r\nspam 2\r\r\npython 1\r\r\n')

As you can see there aren't the two columns for the word and the frequency. I am using Windows and this is the Python version that I am using: 3.5.2 |Anaconda 4.1.1 (64-bit)

For writing CSV, it is often easier to simply write the values using file.write(). — GreenMatt
– GreenMatt, Commented Nov 11, 2016 at 16:24

jfs · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-12 12:39:04Z

2

writer.writerow is expecting the list of columns for the row; in you snippet your are passing all the results ie. all the columns of all the items.

You need to iter over counter.items() to get the result you want:

import csv
from collections import Counter

counter = Counter(['spam', 'egg', 'spam', 'egg', 'python', 'egg'])

with open('wordfile.csv', 'w', newline='') as f:
    writer = csv.writer(f, delimiter=' ')
    writer.writerow(('word', 'count'))
    writer.writerows(counter.most_common())

edited Nov 12, 2016 at 12:39

jfs

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answered Nov 10, 2016 at 18:59

amirouche

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10 Comments

amirouche Over a year ago

Thanks indeed you can also use writerows.

M.Huntz Over a year ago

by using counter.items() I get an error: 'list' object has no attribute 'items'

amirouche Over a year ago

@M.Huntz i fixed the code to use .most_common() and writer.writerows with an s that's what you were missing.

jfs Over a year ago

@M.Huntz: to get comma as a separator, drop delimiter=' ' parameter (comma is the default).

M.Huntz Over a year ago

This is the output by using the code word,count,egg,3spam,2python,1

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