reading a CSV files columns directly into variables names with python

Question

I want to read a CSV file\'s columns directly into variables. The result should be something like you would get with the following shell line: while IFS=, read ColumnName1

Answer 1

I recognize this post is almost two years old, but I want to begin contributing positively to stackoverflow.

I assume you want this to be more general than just three columns, but that efficiency doesn't matter.

import csv
f = csv.reader(open('my file.csv','r'))
e = f.next() #Give us a sample of our data
ecount = len(e)
for i in range(ecount): #use range here to keep variable order in CSV preserved in naming
    vars()['ColumnName'+str(i+1)]] = list(e[i]) # makes a list for each item 
for j in f:
    for l in range(ecount): 
        vars()['ColumnName'+str(l+1)].append(j[l]) #Reads in variable values to list