Python's CSV reader

[Peter Otten]

Stephan wrote:

> Can the CSV module be coerced to read two line formats at once or am I
> better off using read and split?

Yes, it can:

import csv
import sys

reader = csv.reader(sys.stdin)

while True:
    try:
        names = reader.next()
        values = reader.next()
    except StopIteration:
        break
    print dict(zip(names, values))

Python offers an elegant way to do the same using the zip() or
itertools.izip() function:

import csv
import sys
from itertools import izip

reader = csv.reader(sys.stdin)

for names, values in izip(reader, reader):
    print dict(izip(names, values))

Now let's add some minimal error checking, and we are done:

import csv
import sys
from itertools import izip, chain

def check_orphan():
    raise Exception("Unexpected end of input")
    yield None

reader = csv.reader(sys.stdin)
for names, values in izip(reader, chain(reader, check_orphan())):
    if len(names) != len(values):
        if len(names) > len(values):
            raise Exception("More names than values")
        else:
            raise Exception("More values than names")
    print dict(izip(names, values))

Peter