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drevicko
Asked: 2011-11-02 23:06:03 +0800 CST

Is there a utility to transpose a .csv file?

  • 772

I have some csv files with too many columns for LibreOffice Calc to open, but only a few rows. If I can transpose the csv file, it should be ok as Calc can deal with very many more rows than columns.

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3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    A simple python program would do the job (and since this is not really tested: backup you csv file in advance!):

    import csv
import sys
infile = sys.argv[1]
outfile = sys.argv[2]

with open(infile) as f:
    reader = csv.reader(f)
    cols = []
    for row in reader:
        cols.append(row)

with open(outfile, 'wb') as f:
    writer = csv.writer(f)
    for i in range(len(max(cols, key=len))):
        writer.writerow([(c[i] if i<len(c) else '') for c in cols])

    You can save this into a file "my_csv_transposer.py" and call it from the commandline like this: 

    python my_csv_transposer.py <theinfilename> <theoutfilename>
    • 5

  2. You can use this script from the shell like this:

    $ ./transpose_csv < theinfilename > theoutfilename

    And here is the script:

    #!/usr/bin/env python
import sys, csv, itertools
rows = itertools.izip(*csv.reader(sys.stdin, delimiter=','))
sys.stdout.writelines(','.join(row) + '\n' for row in rows)
    • 2

  3. For reference's sake, here is the same incantation in Ruby:

    require 'CSV'

rows = CSV.new($stdin).read
puts rows.transpose.map { |x| x.join ',' }
    • 1