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- [Instructor] One of the most common ways

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of working with spreadsheet data is with CSV,

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or comma-separated values, files.

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A CSV file is a simple file format

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for storing data in a table-like structure

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as a series of rows of values

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separated usually by commas.

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If you think about how a spreadsheet

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contains data within rows and columns,

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you can see how a CSV file represents

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the exact same data structure using plain text.

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Because of this simplicity,

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CSV files are incredibly versatile.

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They are a common way of transferring data

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between different programs,

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such as databases and spreadsheet applications.

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So let's take a look at a very simple example of a CSV file.

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In this case, we have some stock related data,

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including a ticker symbol,

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the name of the company,

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and the opening and closing price for a particular day.

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So each row represents

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a different ticker symbol and company.

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This is a plain text file,

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so you can edit it using any text editor,

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although usually you would use a program

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similar to Excel or Google Sheets or something similar.

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In the rest of this chapter, we're going to see

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how to use Python to perform basic operations

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on CSV files using the built-in CSV module

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in the standard library.