How can I import a csv from another folder in python?

Question

I have a script in python, I want to import a csv from another folder. how can I do this? (for example, my.py is in a folder and I whant to reach the data from the desktop)

Answer 1

First of all, you need to understand how relative and absolute paths work.

I write an example using relative paths . I have two folders in desktop called scripts which includes python files and csvs which includes csv files. So, the code would be:

df = pd.read_csv('../csvs/file.csv)

The path means:

.. (previous folder, in this case, desktop folder).

/csvs (csvs folder).

/file.csv (the csv file).

Answer 2

If you are on Windows:

• Right-click on the file on your desktop, and go to its properties.
• You should see a Location: tag that has a structure similar to this: C:\Users\<user_name>\Desktop
• Then you can define the file path as a variable in Python as:

file_path = r'C:\Users\<your_user_name>\Desktop\<your_file_name>.csv'

• To read it:

df = pd.read_csv(file_path)

Obviously, always try to use relative paths instead of absolute paths like this in your code. Investing some time into learning the Pathlib module would greatly help you.