Writing variables to csv rows with Python

Question

My python script counts how many times a word list appears in a text. Script works but when I try to write results in a CSV file separated by semicolons but it doesn't work.

My code:

import csv
wordslist = ["Bob", "car"]
text = "Bob loves his Mustang car, but Bob wants a Ferrari car because Ferrari is a fastest car."
for word in wordslist :
    resultCar = str(word) + "; " + str(text.count(word))
    print resultCar
    carCountsCsv = open("carcounts.csv", "wb")
    with carCountsCsv:
        writer = csv.writer(carCountsCsv)
        writer.writerow(resultCar)

And my CSV file results is:

c,a,r,;, ,3

I don't understand why my result appear in the same row, I want to have this result like in the console:

Bob;2
car;3

Any help would be appreciated

I get the result, that you want. with python2.7. Are you sure? — Jörg Beyer
– Jörg Beyer, Commented Apr 13, 2019 at 18:20
I just update my question, c,a,r,;, ,3 is my CSV file result — Rubyx
– Rubyx, Commented Apr 13, 2019 at 18:23

Craig · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-13 19:02:49Z

2

First, open the file once before the loop, otherwise you will overwrite the previous line and will end up with a file that only contains the last row.

with open("carcounts.csv", "w") as carCountsCsv:

Then, since you want ; as the separator in your CSV file, you don't need to use csv_writer. You've already created a string with the right separator. Just write the lines to a normal file.

with open("carcounts.csv", "w") as carCountsCsv:
    for word in wordslist :
        resultCar = str(word) + "; " + str(text.count(word)) + "\n"
        print(resultCar)
        carCountsCsv.write(resultCar)

If you do want to use the CSV library, you will want to pass it the delimiter that you want when you create the writer. Then you pass it a list with the elements of each row and it will add the delimiter for you.

with open("carcounts.csv", "w", newline='') as carCountsCsv:
    writer = csv.writer(carCountsCsv, delimiter=';')
    for word in wordslist:
        resultCar = [str(word), str(text.count(word))]
        print(resultCar)
        writer.writerow(resultCar)

Note that when you open the file, specify newline=''. The csv.writer will add the newline for you. If you forget this, you will get double newlines in your CSV file.

edited Apr 13, 2019 at 19:02

answered Apr 13, 2019 at 18:31

Craig

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2 Comments

Amir Shabani Over a year ago

I get a AttributeError: 'file' object has no attribute 'writeline' error.

Craig Over a year ago

@AmirA.Shabani - it was a typo. Fixed now.

Jonas Byström · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-16 07:09:22Z

2

Since your output is CSV already, consider raw pipe. Say our file is named bob_car.py.

wordslist = ["Bob", "car"]
text = "Bob loves his Mustang car, but Bob wants a Ferrari car because Ferrari is a fastest car."
for word in wordslist:
    print "%s; %i" % (word, text.count(word))

Then simply do:

python bob_car.py > carcounts.csv

edited Apr 16, 2019 at 7:09

answered Apr 13, 2019 at 18:21

Jonas Byström

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1 Comment

Rubyx Over a year ago

Thank you too, I think it's better syntax.

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