Question

I’m using Python’s csv.reader to bring a set of dates & coordinates from a file into a list. Here’s a sample line from the .csv and the code:

2012-05-06,2012-05-13,165,35.20068,-89.79318

    with open('innovation.csv', 'rb') as f:
       reader = csv.reader(f)
       for row in reader:
         parseMe.append(row)

The problem is that for some reason, when the date is put into the list, the string is being changed from an ISO format to a calendar format:

[‘5/6/2012’, ‘5/13/2012’, ‘35.20068’, ‘-89.79318’]

Any thoughts on what is happening here? Is it something csv.reader that is changing the strings? What can I do to prevent it or change it back to the ISO format?

Answer 1

csv.reader is not changing anything. The file you think is being opened is probably not the same as the file that is actually being opened.

To prove this run:

with open('innovation.csv', 'r') as f:
    print f.read()

The most likely cause of this is that the 'inovation.csv' file you are looking at is in a different directory than the 'inovation.csv' that your program is opening.