convert html table to csv using python

Question

I have a string which contains the source code of a html file extracted through mechanize library. The html file will always contain a table like this. I want to convert the table to CSV Format.

Several SO questions which address the same problem have the table with a class name. But my table doesnt have a class attribute. So what should i do...?

<table border=1 cellPadding="2" cellSpacing="0" width="75%"  bordercolor="#000000" >

  <tr bgcolor="mediumblue">
    <td width="20%"><p align="center"><font face="Arial" color="white" size="2"><strong>SUB CODE</strong></font></p></td>
    <td width="26%"><p align="left"><font face="Arial" color="white" size="2"><strong>SUB NAME</strong></font></p></td>
    <td width="13%"><p align="left"><font face="Arial" color="white" size="2"><strong>THEORY</strong></font></p>  </td>
    <td width="10%"><p align="left"><font face="Arial" color="white" size="2"><strong>PRACTICAL</strong></font></p> </td>
    <td width="17%"><p align="left"><font face="Arial" color="white" size="2"><strong>MARKS</strong></font></p></td>
    <td width="14%"><p align="center"><font face="Arial" color="white" size="2"><strong>GRADE</strong></font></p></td>
  </tr>


  <tr bgColor="#ffffff">
    <td align="middle"><font face="Arial" size=2> 301</font></td>
    <td align="left" ><font face="Arial" size=2>ENGLISH CORE</font></td>
    <td align="left" ><font face="Arial" size=2>067</font></td>
    <td align="left" ><font face="Arial" size=2></font></td>
    <td align="left" ><font face="Arial" size=2>067&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></td>
    <td align="middle"><font face="Arial" size=2>C2</font></td>
  </tr>

  </table>

because i am getting the code directly from a library called mechanize — Rohith R
– Rohith R, Commented May 27, 2015 at 9:38
If there is only going to be one table in the string that you need to convert, can you identify it by the table element tag, rather than a class name? — Colum
– Colum, Commented May 27, 2015 at 9:40

tdihp · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-27 09:45:31Z

2

pandas has a neat way to read html tables.

import pandas as pd

html_data = '''
<table border=1 cellPadding="2" cellSpacing="0" width="75%"  bordercolor="#000000" >

  <tr bgcolor="mediumblue">
    <td width="20%"><p align="center"><font face="Arial" color="white" size="2"><strong>SUB CODE</strong></font></p></td>
    <td width="26%"><p align="left"><font face="Arial" color="white" size="2"><strong>SUB NAME</strong></font></p></td>
    <td width="13%"><p align="left"><font face="Arial" color="white" size="2"><strong>THEORY</strong></font></p>  </td>
    <td width="10%"><p align="left"><font face="Arial" color="white" size="2"><strong>PRACTICAL</strong></font></p> </td>
    <td width="17%"><p align="left"><font face="Arial" color="white" size="2"><strong>MARKS</strong></font></p></td>
    <td width="14%"><p align="center"><font face="Arial" color="white" size="2"><strong>GRADE</strong></font></p></td>
  </tr>


  <tr bgColor="#ffffff">
    <td align="middle"><font face="Arial" size=2> 301</font></td>
    <td align="left" ><font face="Arial" size=2>ENGLISH CORE</font></td>
    <td align="left" ><font face="Arial" size=2>067</font></td>
    <td align="left" ><font face="Arial" size=2></font></td>
    <td align="left" ><font face="Arial" size=2>067&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></td>
    <td align="middle"><font face="Arial" size=2>C2</font></td>
  </tr>

  </table>
'''

print pd.read_html(html_data)[0].to_csv(index=False, header=False)

When where's multiple tables in html, you can check column names of the table, to remove unneeded ones.

answered May 27, 2015 at 9:45

tdihp

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2 Comments

Rohith R Over a year ago

print pd.read_html(html_data)[0].to_csv(index=False,header=False) TypeError: to_csv() takes at least 2 arguments (3 given)

tdihp Over a year ago

@PRP using Python2, pandas 0.16.0

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