parse a csv file into a text file

Zhen Zhang zhen.zhang.uoft at gmail.com
Wed Feb 5 19:10:16 EST 2014


Hi, every one.

I am a second year EE student.
I just started learning python for my project.

I intend to parse a csv file with a format like 

3520005,"Toronto (Ont.)",C  ,F,2503281,2481494,F,F,0.9,1040597,979330,630.1763,3972.4,1
2466023,"Montréal (Que.)",V  ,F,1620693,1583590,T,F,2.3,787060,743204,365.1303,4438.7,2
5915022,"Vancouver (B.C.)",CY ,F,578041,545671,F,F,5.9,273804,253212,114.7133,5039.0,8
3519038,"Richmond Hill (Ont.)",T  ,F,162704,132030,F,F,23.2,53028,51000,100.8917,1612.7,28

into a text file like the following

Toronto 2503281
Montreal 1620693
Vancouver 578041

I am extracting the 1st and 5th column and save it into a text file.

This is what i have so far.


[code]

import csv
file = open('raw.csv')
reader = csv.reader(file)

f = open('NicelyDone.text','w')

for line in reader:
      f.write("%s %s"%line[1],%line[5])

[/code]

This is not working for me, I was able to extract the data from the csv file as line[1],line[5]. (I am able to print it out)
But I dont know how to write it to a .text file in the format i wanted.

Also, I have to process the first column eg, "Toronto (Ont.)" into "Toronto".
I am familiar with the function find(), I assume that i could extract Toronto out of Toronto(Ont.) using "(" as the stopping character, 
but based on my research , I have no idea how to use it and ask it to return me the string(Toronto).

Here is my question:
1:What is the data format for line[1], if it is string how come f.write()does not work. if it is not string, how do i convert it to a string?
2:How do i extract the word Toronto out of Toronto(Ont) into a string form using find() or other methods.

My thinking is that I could add those 2 string together like c=a+' ' +b, that would give me the format i wanted.
So i can use f.write() to write into a file  ;) 

Sorry if my questions sounds too easy or stupid.

Thanks ahead

Zhen



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