AttributeError: 'list' object has no attribute 'split' in Python

Question

I am having problems with this bit of code

import csv
temp = open("townsfile.csv", "r")
towns = temp.read()
temp.close()
print(towns)

eachTown = towns.split("\n")
print (eachTown)

record = eachTown.split(",")

for line in eachTown:
    record = eachItem.split(",")

print(record)

newlist=[]

newlist.append(record)

newlist=[]
for eachItem in eachTown:
record = eachItem.split(",")
newlist.append(record)

print(newlist)

It returns this error

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "N:/Python practice/towns.py", line 10, in <module>
    record = eachTown.split(",")
AttributeError: 'list' object has no attribute 'split'

Can anyone help me with this

Answer 1

The csv module gives you this text parsing functionality, you do not need to do it yourself.

import csv
with open("townsfile.csv", "r") as f:
    reader = csv.reader(f, delimiter=',')
    towns = list(reader)

print(towns)

The problem you have is that list.split() does not exist, you are trying to use str.split() but you already split it into a list of str s. You would need to do it for every str in the list.

Answer 2

eachTown = towns.split("\n")

This code return list. List don't have attribute split. You should replace

record = eachTown.split(",")

like this

records = [rec.split(",") for rec in eachTown]

But better if you start using module csv for read this file.