How to remove empty cells in csv python?

Question

I don't understand why the code below

with open('book.csv') as f:
    reader = csv.reader(f, delimiter='\t')

    for a in reader:
        print(a)

returns empty cells too.

['username', '', '', '']
['\t\t\t\t', '', '', '']
['Name', 'Surname', '', '']
['Brian', 'Fespa', '', '']
['John', 'Mc', '', '']
['\t\t\t\t', '', '', '']
['Name', 'Surname', 'Age', 'Sex']
['Lauren', 'Fon', '15', 'F']
['Tim', 'Matthew ', '25', 'M']

My purpose is to calculate the length of the rows that have actually some data. For example, the first list ['username', '', '', ''] should return length of 1 and not 4. The second list ['\t\t\t\t', '', '', ''] should return 0 and not 4.

Any help is really appreciated. Thank you!

If it didn't include empty cells, how would you know which cells in that row actually contain data? — ThiefMaster
– ThiefMaster, Commented Feb 25, 2020 at 12:36
It returns empty cells becuase its splitting the CSV. If you dont want empty cells then you should drop them after csv reader gives you the cells. What if there is a line like '1','','2'. should this show 2 or 3 since the middle is empty, should it be dropped? — Chris Doyle
– Chris Doyle, Commented Feb 25, 2020 at 12:38
What if you had 10 columns and only one had something in one column and it chose to just give you that non-empty column as a single item... what column is it? — Jon Clements
– Jon Clements, Commented Feb 25, 2020 at 12:38

Freeman · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-25 16:06:38Z

1

if you want to ignore empty cells maybe something like this will be useful, I also handled \t via re:

import csv
import re

with open('book.csv') as csv_file:
    reader = csv.reader(csv_file)
    result = [[items for items in row if items != '' and items == re.sub('\t+','\t',items)] for row in reader]

print result

the book.csv file is :

username,,,
\t\t\t\t,,,
Name,Surname,,
Brian,Fespa,,
John,Mc,,
\t\t\t\t,,,
Name,Surname,Age,Sex
Lauren,Fon,15,F
Tim,Matthew,25,M

output is :

[['username'], 
[], 
['Name', 'Surname'], 
['Brian', 'Fespa'], 
['John', 'Mc'], 
[], 
['Name', 'Surname', 'Age', 'Sex'], 
['Lauren', 'Fon', '15', 'F'], 
['Tim', 'Matthew', '25', 'M']]

edited Feb 25, 2020 at 16:06

answered Feb 25, 2020 at 12:41

Freeman

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5 Comments

Jon Clements Over a year ago

Except '\t\t\t\t' won't fail that test and still be included...

zimskiz Over a year ago

So, how can I delete the empty values within a list & empty rows?

zimskiz Over a year ago

It works! Can you "translate" the list comprehension that you used? I'm familiar with simple list comprehension syntaxes.

Freeman Over a year ago

@JonClements is it ok now ?

Freeman Over a year ago

@zimskiz please check it again, I removed \t\t too !

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