Python Pandas Error tokenizing data

Question

I\'m trying to use pandas to manipulate a .csv file but I get this error:

pandas.parser.CParserError: Error tokenizing data. C error: Expected 2 field

Answer 1

I've had this problem a few times myself. Almost every time, the reason is that the file I was attempting to open was not a properly saved CSV to begin with. And by "properly", I mean each row had the same number of separators or columns.

Typically it happened because I had opened the CSV in Excel then improperly saved it. Even though the file extension was still .csv, the pure CSV format had been altered.

Any file saved with pandas to_csv will be properly formatted and shouldn't have that issue. But if you open it with another program, it may change the structure.

Hope that helps.