[Tutor] manipulting CSV files

[Alan Gauld]

"Lowell Tackett" <lowelltackett at yahoo.com> wrote

> until I ran across the csv module. Had accomplished this:
>
>>> coord = csv.reader(open('true_coord'))
>>> for line in coord:
.... print line
....
[' 1001', ' 342821.71900', ' 679492.08300', ' 0.00000', ' ']
[' 1002', ' 342838.55786', ' 679909.81375', ' 0.00000', ' ']

> when I realized that the procedure had included leading white space.

> ...came across--'csv.Dialect.skipinitialspace' which I believe
> is the answer to my dilemma. However, my effort to implement
> that detail, based on interpreting the skimpy examples in
> the documentation:
>
>>> coord = csv.reader(open('true_coord'),csv.Dialect.skipinitialspace = 
>>> True)

> File "<stdin>", line 1
> SyntaxError: keyword can't be an expression

Reading the module it looks like the dialect is an attribute of the reader 
so I would try something like:

>>> coord = csv.reader(open('true_coord'))
>>> coord.dialect.skipinitialspace = True
>>> for line in coord.....

But I've never used dialect so am guessing based on my reading of the docs.

HTH,

Alan G.