Pandas - pandas.DataFrame.from_csv vs pandas.read_csv

Question

What's the difference between:

pandas.DataFrame.from_csv, doc link: http://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/stable/generated/pandas.DataFrame.from_csv.html

and

pandas.read_csv, doc link: http://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/stable/generated/pandas.io.parsers.read_csv.html

I believe one of the most important differences is the default for index column. Using from_csv will default to use the first column as an index. read_csv defaults to None so an index will be created. read_csv should be best suited for most datasets. — Ryan G
– Ryan G, Commented Oct 21, 2014 at 20:14
Didn't even know from_csv existed, personally having looked at both I would use read_csv as it has far more options that should assist with data mangling — EdChum
– EdChum, Commented Oct 21, 2014 at 20:20
I think pandas.DataFrame.from_csv has now been removed. I'm unable to call it and your link gives a 404: Not Found error. — Matthias Fripp
– Matthias Fripp, Commented Oct 9, 2019 at 20:27
pandas.DataFrame.from_csv has been deprecated since version 0.21.0. — rasputin
– rasputin, Commented Aug 13, 2024 at 20:05

joris · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-21 20:43:18Z

34

There is no real difference (both are based on the same underlying function), but as noted in the comments, they have some different default values (index_col is 0 or None, parse_dates is True or False for read_csv and DataFrame.from_csv respectively) and read_csv supports more arguments (in from_csv they are just not passed through).

Apart from that, it is recommended to use pd.read_csv.
DataFrame.from_csv exists merely for historical reasons and to keep backwards compatibility (plans are to deprecate it, see here), but all new features are only added to read_csv (as you can see in the much longer list of keyword arguments). Actually, this should be made more clear in the docs.

edited Oct 21, 2014 at 20:43

answered Oct 21, 2014 at 20:35

joris

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2 Comments

user3659451 Over a year ago

thanks joris. I would be interested in getting involved with the pandas project, unless you can think of a better library out there for data analysis or machine learning...

jjrr Over a year ago

@joris: index_col defaults are the opposite -- 'None or 0' (I edited)

ChaimG · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-07 05:13:06Z

3

Another difference is that pandas.read_csv is 46x to 490x as fast as pandas.DataFrame.from_csv (in my testing).

I tested it on Python 3.4.4 and pandas 0.19.2 on Windows on my proprietary csv file.

answered Apr 7, 2017 at 5:13

ChaimG

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