CSV to Markdown is trivial with Python Pandas

Python Pandas are targeted at data science applications but they are useful for everyday data conversion. I needed to convert a wide column sheet of NFRs in a TSV to Markdown for display.

It was easy with just 4 lines of code

This code 

1. Opens the delimited file, 
2. Fills in all the empty cells with empty strings, 
3. Writes out the .md file

df = pd.read_csv(args.csvFile, engine="python", sep=args.sep, header=args.header)

with open(args.mdFile, "w") as md:

    df.fillna("", inplace=True)

    df.to_markdown(buf=md, index=False)

Usage Example

https://github.com/freemansoft/Non-Functional-Requirements

Complete Program w Command Line Arguments

__doc__ = """

This converts a delimited csv file to a markdown table using pandas.

Run with the -h option to see arguments

"""

import pandas as pd

import argparse

csvFileDefault = "NFRs.tsv"

mdFileDefault = "NFRs.md"

headerRowDefault = 0

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Convert tabular data to markdown tables.")

parser.add_argument(

    "--source",

    dest="csvFile",

    default=csvFileDefault,

    help="The delimited source file [" + csvFileDefault + "]",

)

parser.add_argument(

    "--dest",

    dest="mdFile",

    default=mdFileDefault,

    help="The target md file [" + mdFileDefault + "]",

)

parser.add_argument(

    "--sep",

    dest="sep",

    default="\t",

    help="Source column separator [tab]",

)

parser.add_argument(

    "--header",

    dest="header",

    default=headerRowDefault,

    help="The header row [" + str(headerRowDefault) + "]",

)

args = parser.parse_args()

df = pd.read_csv(args.csvFile, engine="python", sep=args.sep, header=args.header)

with open(args.mdFile, "w") as md:

    df.fillna("", inplace=True)

    df.to_markdown(buf=md, index=False)

Created 2022/10