Reading & Writing CSV Files

Question

I started learning Python and I'm taking a Google course on Coursera about automation and IT using it. In the Practice Quiz: Reading & Writing CSV Files , the first question is:

We're working with a list of flowers and some information about each one. The create_file function writes this information to a CSV file. The contents_of_file function reads this file into records and returns the information in a nicely formatted block. Fill in the gaps of the contents_of_file function to turn the data in the CSV file into a dictionary using DictReader .

After giving an answer I receive " Incorrect. Something went wrong! Contact Coursera Support about this question! . I've found a page here and copied that code but the answer is always the same. So I contacted Coursera, but they say there's no problem on their end. That's the code I provided:

import os
import csv

# Create a file with data in it
def create_file(filename):
  with open(filename, "w") as file:
    file.write("name,color,type\n")
    file.write("carnation,pink,annual\n")
    file.write("daffodil,yellow,perennial\n")
    file.write("iris,blue,perennial\n")
    file.write("poinsettia,red,perennial\n")
    file.write("sunflower,yellow,annual\n")

# Read the file contents and format the information about each row
def contents_of_file(filename):
  return_string = ""

  # Call the function to create the file 
  create_file(filename)

  # Open the file
  with open(filename) as f:
    # Read the rows of the file into a dictionary
    x = csv.DictReader(f)
    # Process each item of the dictionary
    for row in x:
      return_string += "a {} {} is {}\n".format(row["color"], row["name"], row["type"])
  return return_string

#Call the function
print(contents_of_file("flowers.csv"))

Has anyone encountered the same issues? Or can you explain to me why it doesn't work?

Adding the console log of the browser here. Tried with Firefox, Chrome and now on Opera. Console Log

Answer 1

As it is an online evaluation platform, it might prohibit things like import OS for security reasons. Besides, it's not doing anything in your code. Did you try removing that line?

Answer 2

It seems you missed the some options( delimiter and newline='' ) in the reader function. Here is the working code:

import os
import csv

# Create a file with data in it
def create_file(filename):
  with open(filename, "w") as file:
    file.write("name,color,type\n")
    file.write("carnation,pink,annual\n")
    file.write("daffodil,yellow,perennial\n")
    file.write("iris,blue,perennial\n")
    file.write("poinsettia,red,perennial\n")
    file.write("sunflower,yellow,annual\n")

# Read the file contents and format the information about each row
def contents_of_file(filename):
  return_string = ""

  # Call the function to create the file 
  create_file(filename)

  # Open the file
  with open(filename, "r", newline='') as f:
    # Read the rows of the file into a dictionary
    reader = csv.DictReader(f, delimiter=",")
    # Process each item of the dictionary
    for row in reader:
      return_string += "a {} {} is {}\n".format(row["color"], row["name"], row["type"])
  return return_string

#Call the function
print(contents_of_file("flowers.csv"))

and result is:

a pink carnation is annual
a yellow daffodil is perennial
a blue iris is perennial
a red poinsettia is perennial
a yellow sunflower is annual

Keep in mind that newline = '' is for python3 and the delimiter must be set in order to be read correctly.