CODEWITHSUNDEEP
python
Sht0p0r
Sht0p0r

Reputation: 49

Python file opening with quote inside newline parameter

I have a tsv file with content like:

'"1"\t"2"\t"3"\t"4"\n'
'"5"\t"6\n7"\t"8"\t"9"\n'

I want to be able to ignore \n symbols inside double quotes, but file's readline() method read it like:

1 2 3 4
5 6
7 8 9

What I want is:

1 2 3 4
5 6\n7 8 9

I tried to pass it to the newline parameter:

f = open('file.tsv', newline = '"\n')
f = open('file.tsv', newline = '\"\n')

But I get

ValueError: illegal newline value: "

Upvotes: 0

Views: 611

Answers (1)

Oleh Rybalchenko
Oleh Rybalchenko

Reputation: 8059

Readline method doesn't parce tsv-like strings, just reads the content as it is. Python provides CSV package to read such files:

import csv
with open('test.csv') as csvfile:
    reader = csv.reader(csvfile, delimiter='\t', quotechar='"')
    for row in reader:
        print(', '.join(row))

Read more abuot this package in the docs.

BTW, your trick with newline argument throws an error because it can be None, '', '\n', '\r', and '\r\n'.

Note that newline only applies to text mode.

UPDATE:

See the example with topicstarter's data below:

from io import StringIO

file = StringIO("""'"1"\t"2"\t"3"\t"4"'
'"5"\t"6\n7"\t"8"\t"9"'""")
reader =csv.reader(file, delimiter='\t', quotechar='"')
for row in reader:
    print(row)

Output: 

['\'"1"', '2', '3', "4'"]
['\'"5"', '6\n7', '8', "9'"]

So it works as expected - splitting cannot be performed right when you open the file, csv.reader working with file object, not with the lines.

Upvotes: 3

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