How to Write a List to CSV in Python Without Brackets or Quotes

Learn how to efficiently write elements from a list to a CSV file in Python, formatting them correctly without unwanted brackets or quotes.
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This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/62574181/ asked by the user 'Thomas Aurich' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/13812053/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/62574223/ provided by the user 'asthasr' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/327038/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

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How to Write a List to CSV in Python Without Brackets or Quotes

When it comes to handling data in Python, one common task is writing data from lists into CSV files. However, you may encounter unwanted formatting issues such as brackets and quotes when trying to export your data. This can be frustrating, especially when you need the output in a specific format. In this guide, we will explore how to format your list correctly when writing to a CSV file, ensuring that your output looks just the way you want it.

Understanding the Problem

Let's start with a scenario: you're working on a Python script that selects languages from a CSV file and populates a list called lang_skills. Your goal is to write the contents of this list into a new CSV file without any brackets or quotes, producing a clean output. For instance, if your list contains ['Urdu', 'Ukrainian', 'Swedish'], you would like it to appear as Language;Urdu, Ukrainian, Swedish in the CSV file.

The Code You've Written

Here’s a brief overview of the steps you've already taken in your script:

Populate a list of languages from a central CSV file.

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Select random languages to fill the lang_skills list.

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Attempt to write the list to a new CSV file, which resulted in unwanted formatting:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

The current output appears as:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

The Solution

Here’s the solution to your problem: instead of writing the list lang_skills directly, you need to join the elements in the list into a single string, separated by commas. This way, you avoid the issues with unwanted brackets and quotes. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Join the List Elements

You can use the join() method to concatenate the elements in your list. Modify the code where you write to the CSV as follows:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Step 2: Update the CSV Writer Settings

Make sure to set quoting=csv.QUOTE_NONE in order to prevent adding additional quotes around the output.

Expected Output

When you run the updated code, your resulting CSV should look like this:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Conclusion

By joining the elements of your list into a single string, you can easily write them to a CSV file without unwanted brackets or quotes. This approach not only resolves your formatting issues but also cleans up the output for better readability and usability.
Embrace these coding techniques to streamline your data handling in Python and make your scripts cleaner and more efficient.

If you have any more questions or need further clarification on working with CSV files in Python, feel free to reach out or leave a comment below!