Convert txt extract to CSV

Question

Hi I would like to extract a table from a txt file and send it to a csv file. I have worked out a script to extract the table but I cannot make it to the correct format.

cc = "March TXT format BRA.txt"
title = ""
i = 0

fields = [
    "Gender",
    "InPat St",
    "Admits",
    "Trans In",
    "Disch",
    "Deaths",
    "Tran Out",
    "InPat End",
    "Leave Days",
    "Day Only",
    "Births",
    "No Babies",
    "Baby Days",
    "Bed Days",
    "Location",
    "Location2",
    "Date",
]

with open(cc) as data:
    lines = data.readlines()[2:27]
    title = lines[0].strip()
    for line in lines:
        line = line.split()
        if len(line) == 14:
            if line[0] != "Total":
                if i < 2:
                    line += ["Ward: Rehabilitation - A Ward"]
                    line += ["Braeside Hospital"]
                    line.append(title)
                else:
                    if i < 4:
                        line += ["Ward: Palliative Care - B Ward"]
                        line += ["Braeside Hospital"]
                        line.append(title)
                    else:
                        line += ["Ward: Aged Care Psychiatric - C Ward"]
                        line += ["Braeside Hospital"]
                        line.append(title)
                i += 1
                print(line)

The result is the following:

['Female', '17', '19', '0', '22', '0', '0', '14', '0', '1', '0', '0', '0', '479', 'Ward: Rehabilitation - A Ward', 'Braeside Hospital', 'March 2021']
['Male', '15', '16', '0', '13', '0', '0', '18', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '497', 'Ward: Rehabilitation - A Ward', 'Braeside Hospital', 'March 2021']
['Female', '10', '7', '0', '3', '10', '0', '4', '1', '0', '0', '0', '0', '253', 'Ward: Palliative Care - B Ward', 'Braeside Hospital', 'March 2021']
['Male', '7', '17', '0', '3', '13', '0', '8', '2', '0', '0', '0', '0', '211', 'Ward: Palliative Care - B Ward', 'Braeside Hospital', 'March 2021']
['Female', '6', '4', '0', '4', '0', '0', '6', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '149', 'Ward: Aged Care Psychiatric - C Ward', 'Braeside Hospital', 'March 2021']
['Male', '9', '5', '0', '5', '0', '0', '9', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '304', 'Ward: Aged Care Psychiatric - C Ward', 'Braeside Hospital', 'March 2021']

I would like to add those to csv file and I am struggling to do so.

Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

This was many times on Stackoverflow.

You can convert line to string

row = ','.join(line)

and then you can save in file

f.write(row + '\n')

and you can do it inside your for -loop

OR if you will keep all lines on list then you could do this at the end

data = [
    ['Female', '17', '19', '0', '22', '0', '0', '14', '0', '1', '0', '0', '0', '479', 'Ward: Rehabilitation - A Ward', 'Braeside Hospital', 'March 2021'],
    ['Male', '15', '16', '0', '13', '0', '0', '18', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '497', 'Ward: Rehabilitation - A Ward', 'Braeside Hospital', 'March 2021'],
    ['Female', '10', '7', '0', '3', '10', '0', '4', '1', '0', '0', '0', '0', '253', 'Ward: Palliative Care - B Ward', 'Braeside Hospital', 'March 2021'],
    ['Male', '7', '17', '0', '3', '13', '0', '8', '2', '0', '0', '0', '0', '211', 'Ward: Palliative Care - B Ward', 'Braeside Hospital', 'March 2021'],
    ['Female', '6', '4', '0', '4', '0', '0', '6', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '149', 'Ward: Aged Care Psychiatric - C Ward', 'Braeside Hospital', 'March 2021'],
    ['Male', '9', '5', '0', '5', '0', '0', '9', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '304', 'Ward: Aged Care Psychiatric - C Ward', 'Braeside Hospital', 'March 2021'],
]

with open('output1.csv', 'w') as f:
    for line in data:
        f.write(','.join(line) + '\n')

---

But iw would be safer to use standard module csv for this - because sometimes text may have comma , or new line \n or other char which may need to use " " or other method to create safe data.

You can do it in your loop or at the end using writerow with every `line separately

import csv

data = [ ...lines... ]

with open('output.csv', 'w') as f:
    csv_writer = csv.writer(f)
    for line in data:
        csv_writer.writerow(line)

or using writerows (with char s at the end) to write all at once

with open('output.csv', 'w') as f:
    csv_writer = csv.writer(f)
    csv_writer.writerows(data)