CSV
Header Variants and Normalizing Column Names in CSV Files
Clean up messy CSV headers into stable column names: BOMs, spaces, case, accents, duplicates, blanks and leading digits, with a function you can test.
7 min read
Library
Everything you need to level up your coding skills.
CSV
Parsing Multi Line Headers in Report Style CSV Files
Turn a CSV with a title row and a two level header into a flat table: skip the title, forward fill merged top cells and join the levels into column names.
6 min read
CSV
Pipe Delimited Files From Legacy Systems Without Surprises
Read pipe delimited files from banks and mainframes: a trailing pipe that adds a phantom column, unquoted values containing pipes, trailers and code pages.
7 min read
CSV
Fixed Width Files and Converting Them to CSV Safely
Convert a fixed width file to CSV by slicing each line at known positions, check every line length, and handle implied decimals, padding and wide characters.
7 min read
CSV
PostgreSQL CSV Versus Text Format in COPY and Which to Use
PostgreSQL COPY has a CSV format and a text format that differ in delimiter, NULL marker and escaping. See the same rows in both and what a mismatch loads.
6 min read
CSV
Excel CSV Versus RFC CSV Differences Worth Knowing About
Where Excel's CSV departs from RFC 4180: delimiter, encoding, BOM, the sep line, displayed values, formulas and the ID trap, plus a converter script.
7 min read
CSV
CSVW and Describing CSV With Metadata That Tools Can Read
Describe a CSV's delimiter, header, column names, types and keys in a CSVW metadata file, then use it to read the file correctly. Includes a working example.
7 min read
CSVGuide
CSV Dialects and Variants You Will Run Into in Practice
The CSV dialects that exist in the wild, from RFC 4180 and Excel to PostgreSQL text, MySQL, TSV and pipes, with the settings that tell them apart.
19 min read
YAML
Converting YAML to a Markdown Table for Docs and READMEs
Generate a Markdown table from a YAML list in Python, escaping pipes, joining lists, handling blanks and keeping the table in sync with the YAML in CI.
6 min read
YAML
Converting an Excel Sheet of Settings Into YAML Using Python
Read a key, value and type sheet with openpyxl, build nested YAML from dotted keys, and keep versions, dates and blanks from changing on the way.
7 min read
YAML
Converting YAML to XML With Python and Valid Names
Convert YAML to XML with xmltodict, using @ keys for attributes, repeated elements for lists, and checks for invalid names and the single-root rule.
7 min read
YAML
Converting a CSV Into a YAML List With Correct Types
Turn CSV rows into a YAML list of mappings in Python, keeping zip codes as text and giving integers, floats, booleans and empty cells the right types.
6 min read
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