Creating a DataFrame from a CSV file using Pandas

Many datasets are provided in a comma-separated value file format (file extension .csv). The pd.read_csv function provides two primary ways to read a CSV file.

Reading in a CSV file from a URL

Sometimes, as with many publicly available datasets, you can access the dataset with a URL. One example of this is the course catalog dataset from The University of Illinois (one of the many datasets provided on this site).

To load this dataset, input the URL as a string to the read_csv function.

import pandas as pd\ndf = pd.read_csv("https://waf.cs.illinois.edu/discovery/course-catalog.csv")\ndf

Reset Code Python Output:


  
    
      
      Year
      Term
      YearTerm
      Subject
      Number
      Name
      Description
      Credit Hours
      Section Info
      Degree Attributes
    
  
  
    
      0
      2019
      Fall
      2019-fa
      AAS
      100
      Intro Asian American Studies
      Interdisciplinary introduction to the basic co...
      3 hours.
      NaN
      Social & Beh Sci - Soc Sci, and Cultural Studi...
    
    
      1
      2019
      Fall
      2019-fa
      AAS
      105
      Introduction to Arab American Studies
      Interdisciplinary introduction to the basic co...
      3 hours.
      NaN
      Cultural Studies - US Minority course.
    
    
      2
      2019
      Fall
      2019-fa
      AAS
      120
      Intro to Asian Am Pop Culture
      Introductory understanding of the way U.S. pop...
      3 hours.
      NaN
      Cultural Studies - US Minority course.
    
    
      3
      2019
      Fall
      2019-fa
      AAS
      199
      Undergraduate Open Seminar
      May be repeated to a maximum of 6 hours.
      1 TO 5 hours.
      NaN
      NaN
    
    
      4
      2019
      Fall
      2019-fa
      AAS
      200
      U.S. Race and Empire
      Invites students to examine histories and narr...
      3 hours.
      Same as LLS 200.
      Humanities - Hist & Phil, and Cultural Studies...
    
    
      ...
      ...
      ...
      ...
      ...
      ...
      ...
      ...
      ...
      ...
      ...
    
    
    
      8588
      2019
      Fall
      2019-fa
      ZULU
      406
      Advanced Zulu II
      Continuation of Zulu 405 with increased emphas...
      3 hours.
      NaN
      NaN

Reading in a CSV file from your local computer

To read in a CSV from your computer, you want to first make sure the file is in the same folder as the python file you are working with:

Photo showing the files are in the same folder

We can see that both of our files are in the Data Science Discovery folder. Then we can input the name of the file in quotes to the read_csv function.

import pandas as pd
df = pd.read_csv("course-catalog.csv")
df

	Year	Term	YearTerm	Subject	Number	Name	Description	Credit Hours	Section Info	Degree Attributes
0	2019	Fall	2019-fa	AAS	100	Intro Asian American Studies	Interdisciplinary introduction to the basic co...	3 hours.	NaN	Social & Beh Sci - Soc Sci, and Cultural Studi...
1	2019	Fall	2019-fa	AAS	105	Introduction to Arab American Studies	Interdisciplinary introduction to the basic co...	3 hours.	NaN	Cultural Studies - US Minority course.
2	2019	Fall	2019-fa	AAS	120	Intro to Asian Am Pop Culture	Introductory understanding of the way U.S. pop...	3 hours.	NaN	Cultural Studies - US Minority course.
3	2019	Fall	2019-fa	AAS	199	Undergraduate Open Seminar	May be repeated to a maximum of 6 hours.	1 TO 5 hours.	NaN	NaN
4	2019	Fall	2019-fa	AAS	200	U.S. Race and Empire	Invites students to examine histories and narr...	3 hours.	Same as LLS 200.	Humanities - Hist & Phil, and Cultural Studies...
...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
8588	2019	Fall	2019-fa	ZULU	406	Advanced Zulu II	Continuation of Zulu 405 with increased emphas...	3 hours.	NaN	NaN

Pandas Documentation

The full documentation for read_csv is available in the pandas documentation.