\begin{notice}
This version of the \module{csv} module doesn't support Unicode
input. Also, there are currently some issues regarding \ASCII{} NUL
- characters. Accordingly, all input should generally be printable
- \ASCII{} to be safe. These restrictions will be removed in the future.
+ characters. Accordingly, all input should be UTF-8 or printable
+ \ASCII{} to be safe; see the examples in section~\ref{csv-examples}.
+ These restrictions will be removed in the future.
\end{notice}
\begin{seealso}
-\subsection{Examples}
+\subsection{Examples\label{csv-examples}}
The simplest example of reading a CSV file:
\end{verbatim}
The \module{csv} module doesn't directly support reading and writing
-Unicode, but it is 8-bit clean save for some problems with \ASCII{} NUL
-characters, so you can write classes that handle the encoding and decoding
-for you as long as you avoid encodings like utf-16 that use NULs:
+Unicode, but it is 8-bit-clean save for some problems with \ASCII{} NUL
+characters. So you can write functions or classes that handle the
+encoding and decoding for you as long as you avoid encodings like
+UTF-16 that use NULs. UTF-8 is recommended.
+
+\function{unicode_csv_reader} below is a generator that wraps
+\class{csv.reader} to handle Unicode CSV data (a list of Unicode
+strings). \function{utf_8_encoder} is a generator that encodes the
+Unicode strings as UTF-8, one string (or row) at a time. The encoded
+strings are parsed by the CSV reader, and
+\function{unicode_csv_reader} decodes the UTF-8-encoded cells back
+into Unicode:
+
+\begin{verbatim}
+import csv
+
+def unicode_csv_reader(unicode_csv_data, dialect=csv.excel, **kwargs):
+ # csv.py doesn't do Unicode; encode temporarily as UTF-8:
+ csv_reader = csv.reader(utf_8_encoder(unicode_csv_data),
+ dialect=dialect, **kwargs)
+ for row in csv_reader:
+ # decode UTF-8 back to Unicode, cell by cell:
+ yield [unicode(cell, 'utf-8') for cell in row]
+
+def utf_8_encoder(unicode_csv_data):
+ for line in unicode_csv_data:
+ yield line.encode('utf-8')
+\end{verbatim}
+
+The classes below work just like the \class{csv.reader} and
+\class{csv.writer} classes, but they add an \var{encoding} parameter
+to allow for encoded files:
\begin{verbatim}
import csv
class UnicodeReader:
+
+ """
+ A CSV reader which will iterate over lines in the CSV file "f",
+ which is encoded in the given encoding.
+ """
+
def __init__(self, f, dialect=csv.excel, encoding="utf-8", **kwds):
self.reader = csv.reader(f, dialect=dialect, **kwds)
self.encoding = encoding
return self
class UnicodeWriter:
+
+ """
+ A CSV writer which will write rows to CSV file "f",
+ which is encoded in the given encoding.
+ """
+
def __init__(self, f, dialect=csv.excel, encoding="utf-8", **kwds):
self.writer = csv.writer(f, dialect=dialect, **kwds)
self.encoding = encoding
for row in rows:
self.writerow(row)
\end{verbatim}
-
-They should work just like the \class{csv.reader} and \class{csv.writer}
-classes but add an \var{encoding} parameter.