Automate the Boring Stuff with Python

Chapter 14. Working with CSV Files and JSON Data

In Chapter 13, you learned how to extract text from PDF and Word documents. These files were in a binary format, which required special Python modules to access their data. CSV and JSON files, on the other hand, are just plaintext files. You can view them in a text editor, such as IDLE’s file editor. But Python also comes with the special csv and json modules, each providing functions to help you work with these file formats.

CSV stands for “comma-separated values,” and CSV files are simplified spreadsheets stored as plaintext files. Python’s csv module makes it easy to parse CSV files.

JSON (pronounced “JAY-sawn” or “Jason”—it doesn’t matter how because either way people will say you’re pronouncing ...