Check if file has a CSV format with Python

Question

Could someone provide an effective way to check if a file has CSV format using Python ?

Answer 1

You could try something like the following, but just because you get a dialect back from csv.Sniffer really won't be sufficient for guaranteeing you have a valid CSV document.

csv_fileh = open(somefile, 'rb') try:     dialect = csv.Sniffer().sniff(csv_fileh.read(1024))     # Perform various checks on the dialect (e.g., lineseparator,     # delimiter) to make sure it's sane      # Don't forget to reset the read position back to the start of     # the file before reading any entries.     csv_fileh.seek(0) except csv.Error:     # File appears not to be in CSV format; move along