From TSV to CSV: How GitHub Copilot Chat Made Data Conversion a Breeze!

I recently discovered that GitHub projects has TSV exports! 💃🏼

I was super excited about this but it also made me realize that some folks may want/prefer csv files and so, I asked by bestie - GitHub Copilot Chat - to help me convert a TSV file to a CSV file in Python.
Now, I'm not a Python Developer, so I wasn't sure how I would do this in Python, and while I could use an npm module like PapaParse to accomplish this, I wanted to try another language.

Honestly, it was pretty seamless!

Here's how I did it:

Step 1: Download your TSV file and add it to a folder, then open said folder in VSCode (or your preferred editor).

Step 2: Create a new Python file, I called mine tsv_to_csv.py.

Step 3: Navigate to GitHub Copilot Chat and ask "how do I convert a tsv file to csv with python?"
I was provided with the following code:

import csv

with open('ruby-study-guide.tsv', 'r') as tsvfile:
    reader = csv.reader(tsvfile, delimiter='\t')
    with open('ruby-study-guide.csv', 'w', newline='') as csvfile:
        writer = csv.writer(csvfile)
        for row in reader:
            writer.writerow(row)
    print("Conversion complete!")

If you're not familiar with GitHub Copilot Chat, read this blog post to learn how to get started with it.

Step 4: Paste the code into your file by clicking the "Insert at Cursor" icon.

Step 5: Save your file, run the code with python <<name of your file here>>, for example python tsv_to_csv.py, and enjoy your csv file!

Here's a video/gif on the steps I did above:

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Now that you know that GitHub Projects has TSV exports, learn more tidbits that you possibly didn't know by reading this blog post I wrote on 10 things you didn't know you could do with GitHub Projects.

Let me know if you have any questions about GitHub Copilot or GitHub Projects below!

Comments

[Vincent A. Cicirello]

As you discovered with Copilot, Python's csv module is more versatile than just csv files, and can handle arbitrary delimiters.

One random DEV tip for you: DEV's editor supports syntax highlighting in code blocks. Here's how:

```Python
import csv

with open('ruby-study-guide.tsv', 'r') as tsvfile:
    reader = csv.reader(tsvfile, delimiter='\t')
```

Produces:

import csv

with open('ruby-study-guide.tsv', 'r') as tsvfile:
    reader = csv.reader(tsvfile, delimiter='\t')

It works for most languages. Just put language name after opening backticks.

[Kedasha]

Thank you! I'm not too familiar with Python so can't wait to. learn more about the csv module!

Also, Thanks so much for the tip! Updated! 💃🏼

[Vincent A. Cicirello]

You're welcome. Python's a great language to learn. I use it a lot. It's not the language I use the most, but it's in my top 3.