csv.Error: iterator should return strings, not bytes

Question

Sample.csv contains the following:

NAME    Id   No  Dept
Tom     1    12   CS
Hendry  2    35   EC
Bahamas 3    21   IT
Frank   4    61   EE

And the Python file contains the following code:

import csv
ifile  = open('sample.csv', "rb")
read = csv.reader(ifile)
for row in read :
    print (row) 

When I run the above code in Python, I get the following exception:

File "csvformat.py", line 4, in for row in read : _csv.Error: iterator should return strings, not bytes (did you open the file in text mode?)

How can I fix it?

Answer 1

You open the file in text mode.

More specifically:

ifile  = open('sample.csv', "rt", encoding=<theencodingofthefile>)

Good guesses for encoding is "ascii" and "utf8". You can also leave the encoding off, and it will use the system default encoding, which tends to be UTF8, but may be something else.