A CSV [Comma Separated Values] is a file format that is used to save the data in the tabular format. Python provides various functions to convert any data type to csv data or file. Some functions are inbuilt and some functions are third-party libraries.
To convert the list to csv in Python, use one of these approaches.
- Using the inbuilt Python CSV module.
- Using Pandas to_csv[] method.
- Using numpy.savetxt[] function.
Python 3 comes with an inbuilt CSV module, so you need to import the module in your file to use its functions.
To install numpy, type the following command. I am assuming that you have installed or upgraded pip, which is a Python package manager.
python3 -m pip install numpy
To install the Pandas library, type the following command.
python3 -m pip install pandas
Using the inbuilt Python CSV module
Python csv module provides csv.writer[] method, which returns the write object, and then we can call the writerow[] and writerows[] functions to convert list or list of lists the csv file.
To create a file, use Python with statement, which does not require closing the file since with statement does the job for us.
import csv
cols = ["Character Name", "Series Name", "Profession", "Age"]
rows = [["Mando", "Mandalorian", "Bounty Hunter", 35],
["Grogu", "Mandalorian", "Jedi Master", 50],
["Eleven", "Stranger Things", "Kid", 14],
["Jon", "Game of Thrones", "King", 30],
["Ross", "Friends", "Paleontologist", 35]]
with open['shows.csv', 'w'] as f:
# using csv.writer method from CSV package
write = csv.writer[f]
write.writerow[cols]
write.writerows[rows]
In this example, first, we have imported the csv module. Then we have defined two lists.
- rows
- columns
The cols list defines the columns of the csv file, and rows are a list of lists that will create rows of the csv file. Use the with statement to open a shows.csv file, and if it does not exist, it will create for us and write the rows and cols to the csv file.
If you run the above code, then in your current directory, you will see a shows.csv file. If you open the file, then you will see that it is filled with comma-separated values. So this is the first way to convert a list to csv.
Using Pandas to_csv[] function
To convert the list to csv, we need to convert from list to dataframe and then use the to_csv[] function to convert dataframe to a csv file.
import pandas as pd
char_name = ["Mando", "Grogu", "Eleven", "Jon", "Ross"]
series_name = ["Mandalorian", "Mandalorian",
"Stranger Things", "Game of Thrones", "Friends"]
profession = ["Bounty Hunter", "Jedi Master", "Kid", "King", "Paleontologist"]
age = [35, 50, 14, 30, 35]
dict = {"Character Name": char_name, "Series Name": series_name,
"Profession": profession, "Age": age}
df = pd.DataFrame[dict]
df.to_csv['shows.csv']
In this example, we have first imported pandas library and then define the four lists and map it with its column using a dictionary. Then use the pd.DataFrame[] function to convert it into DataFrame and then use the to_csv[] function to convert the DataFrame to CSV file.
Using numpy.savetxt[] function
Numpy savetxt[] function save an array to a text file. We can also use the savetxt[] file to save the data into csv file.
import numpy as np
data = [ ["Mando", "Grogu", "Eleven", "Jon", "Ross"],
["Mandalorian", "Mandalorian","Stranger Things", "Game of Thrones", "Friends"],
["Bounty Hunter", "Jedi Master", "Kid", "King", "Paleontologist"],
[35, 50, 14, 30, 35] ]
np.savetxt["shows.csv", data, delimiter=", ", fmt="% s"]
If you run the above code, you will see the shows.csv file in your current project folder.
That is it for converting Python list to the csv file.
See also
Python list to array
Python list to tuple
Python list to string
Python list to json
Python list to dataframe
Python list to dictionary