Reading a CSV file into a list of dictionaries

[Robert Kern]

RFQ wrote:
> Hi, I'm struggling here to do the following with any success:
> 
> I have a comma delimited file where each line in the file is something
> like:
> 
> PNumber,3056,Contractor,XYZ Contracting,Architect,ABC Architects,...
> 
> So each line is intended to be: key1,value1,key2,value2,key3,value3...
> and each line is to be variable in length (although it will have to be
> an even number of records so that each key has a value).
> 
> I want to read in this csv file and parse it into a list of
> dictionaries. So each record in the list is a dictionary:
> 
> {"PNumber":"3056","Contractor":"XYZ Contracting", ... }
> 
> I have no problem reading in the CSV file to a list and splitting each
> line in the file into its comma separated values. But I can't figure
> out how to parse each resulting list into a dictionary.

First, don't process the CSV stuff yourself. Use the csv module.

In [9]:import csv

In [10]:f = open('foo.csv')

In [11]:cr = csv.reader(f)

In [12]:for row in cr:
    ....:    print dict(zip(row[::2], row[1::2]))
    ....:
{'Architect': 'ABC Architects', 'PNumber': '3056', 'Contractor': 'XYZ 
Contracting'}
{'Architect': 'ABC Architects', 'PNumber': '3056', 'Contractor': 'XYZ 
Contracting'}
[etc.]

-- 
Robert Kern
rkern at ucsd.edu

"In the fields of hell where the grass grows high
  Are the graves of dreams allowed to die."
   -- Richard Harter