When read lists from text file into pandas dataframe column face ` ParserError: Error tokenizing data. C error: Expected 16 fields in line 3, saw 21 `

Question

I have a text file called tropical.txt that have multiple lists that looks like this

['papaya', 'mangosteen', 'banana']
[]
['coconut', 'mango']

How can I read it into a pandas dataframe such that my final output will look like this? fruits is my column name in the expected output.

  fruits
0 [apple, orange, banana]
1 []
2 [pineapple, mango]

I tried

pd.read_csv('tropical.txt')

But it's giving me a parse error

ParserError: Error tokenizing data. C error: Expected 16 fields in line 3, saw 21

mizoru · Accepted Answer · 2022-06-28 13:16:42Z

1

CSV is comma-separated values, so pandas is treating every comma in your list as a column separator. You should try and change the sep argument in pd.read_csv

answered Jun 28, 2022 at 13:16

mizoru

563 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

nerd · Accepted Answer · 2022-06-28 15:48:17Z

0


df = pd.read_csv('tropical.txt', sep="\n")

After reading into the pandas dataframe, convert the string into a list.

df[0] = df[0].apply(eval)

edited Jun 28, 2022 at 15:48

answered Jun 28, 2022 at 13:19

nerd

4931 gold badge10 silver badges22 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

When read lists from text file into pandas dataframe column face ` ParserError: Error tokenizing data. C error: Expected 16 fields in line 3, saw 21 `

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related