CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonpython-2.7
atari
atari

Reputation: 37

Download .csv file using python

I am trying to download a .csv file and save it onto my computer. However when I run the script below, I am getting the error "Error: line contains NULL byte". What is it that I am doing wrong?

import csv
import urllib2

url = 'http://wildfire.alberta.ca/reports/activedd.csv'
response = urllib2.urlopen(url)
cr = csv.reader(response)

for row in cr:
    print row

Upvotes: 2

Views: 4423

Answers (3)

meiamsome
meiamsome

Reputation: 2944

The file you're trying to download is in UTF-16 format, and the CSV module is not designed for that. You need to decode it from UTF-16 into some other format. For example:

import csv
import codecs
import urllib2

url = 'http://wildfire.alberta.ca/reports/activedd.csv'
response = urllib2.urlopen(url)
cr = csv.reader([x.strip() for x in codecs.iterdecode(response, 'UTF-16')])

data = [x for x in cr]

# Manipulate the data here

# Now to save the CSV:
with open('outputfile.csv', 'wb') as output:
    writer = csv.writer(output)
    writer.writerows(data)

If you just need to download the file, and not manipulate it, there are better ways (see minitoto's answer).

This is an example, and the newlines have to be stripped manually for this to work properly, so I'm sure there's probably a better way, but that's the main issue

Upvotes: 3

midori
midori

Reputation: 4837

I guess the easiest way is to use urlretrieve:

import urllib

url = 'http://wildfire.alberta.ca/reports/activedd.csv'
urllib.urlretrieve(url, "activedd.csv")

Upvotes: 1

sgiri
sgiri

Reputation: 711

Here's what I've done. The lazy way. 

import urllib2

url = 'http://wildfire.alberta.ca/reports/activedd.csv'
response = urllib2.urlopen(url)
with open('activeddData.csv','w') as csvFile:
    for line in response.readlines():
        csvFile.write(line)

Upvotes: -1

Related Questions