Read specific columns in csv using python

Question

I have a csv file that look like this:

+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| AAA | bbb | ccc | DDD | eee | FFF | GGG | hhh |
+-----+-----+-----+-----+---         


        

Answer 1

All other answers are good, but I think it would be better to not load all data at the same time because the csv file could be really huge. I suggest using a generator.

def read_csv(f, cols):
    reader = csv.reader(f)
    for row in reader:
        if len(row) == 1:
            columns = row[0].split()
            yield (columns[c] for c in cols)

Which can be used for a for loop after

with open('path/to/test.csv', 'rb') as f:
    for bbb, ccc in read_csv(f, [1, 2]):
        print bbb, ccc

Of course you can enhance this function to receive the column's name instead of the index. To do so, just mix Brad M answer and mine.