# Using CSV.read() to import data from a data input file into a DataFrame
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-csv-read-to-import-data-from-a-data-input-file-into-a-dataframe/77120
**Category:** General Usage
**Tags:** question, dataframes, csv
**Created:** [February 26, 2022, 12:54pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-csv-read-to-import-data-from-a-data-input-file-into-a-dataframe/77120 "2022-02-26T12:54:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jjdegruijter](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jjdegruijter)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2022, 12:54pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-csv-read-to-import-data-from-a-data-input-file-into-a-dataframe/77120/1 "2022-02-26T12:54:33Z")
In my homemade function ‘readdata()’ I have:
Data = csv.read(filename; delim=‘,’, DataFrame)
where ‘filename’ refers to one of my data inputfiles, named e.g. ‘instance.txt’.
This resulted from my code in julia-1.0.
When I try to run this, ‘Data’ remains empty; I cannot extract data from it.
---
### Author:  [@pdeffebach](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pdeffebach)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2022, 4:24pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-csv-read-to-import-data-from-a-data-input-file-into-a-dataframe/77120/2 "2022-02-26T16:24:04Z")
You are getting keyword arguments and positional arguments mixed up
```julia
CSV.read(filename, DataFrame; delim = ',')
```
---
### Author:  [@jjdegruijter](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jjdegruijter)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2022, 6:42am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-csv-read-to-import-data-from-a-data-input-file-into-a-dataframe/77120/3 "2022-02-27T06:42:50Z")
When I do that I get the following:
Data = CSV.read(filename, DataFrame; delim=‘,’)
#function read(source, sink=nothing; copycols::Bool=false, kwargs…)
#if sink === nothing
#Data = CSV.read(filename; delim=‘,’, DataFrame)
#end
#Tables.CopiedColumns(CSV.File(source; kwargs…)) |\> sink
#end
What to do with it?
---
### Author:  [@lawless-m](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lawless-m)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2022, 7:53am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-csv-read-to-import-data-from-a-data-input-file-into-a-dataframe/77120/4 "2022-02-27T07:53:29Z")
You get 6 comments ?
---
### Author:  [@rafael.guerra](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rafael.guerra)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2022, 8:00am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-csv-read-to-import-data-from-a-data-input-file-into-a-dataframe/77120/5 "2022-02-27T08:00:16Z")
> [@jjdegruijter](#):
>
> What to do with it?
[First you should try this](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/please-read-make-it-easier-to-help-you/14757).
---
### Author:  [@jjdegruijter](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jjdegruijter)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2022, 11:23am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-csv-read-to-import-data-from-a-data-input-file-into-a-dataframe/77120/6 "2022-02-27T11:23:39Z")
I got this comment:
‘’’
#function read(source, sink=nothing; copycols::Bool=false, kwargs…)
…#if sink === nothing
…#Data = CSV.read(filename; delim=‘,’, DataFrame)
…#end
…#Tables.CopiedColumns(CSV.File(source; kwargs…)) |\> sink
#end
‘’’
---
### Author:  [@rafael.guerra](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rafael.guerra)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2022, 11:29am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-csv-read-to-import-data-from-a-data-input-file-into-a-dataframe/77120/7 "2022-02-27T11:29:01Z")
```
type the code here
```
---
### Author:  [@jjdegruijter](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jjdegruijter)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2022, 11:32am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-csv-read-to-import-data-from-a-data-input-file-into-a-dataframe/77120/8 "2022-02-27T11:32:58Z")
```julia
#function read(source, sink=nothing; copycols::Bool=false, kwargs…)
..#if sink === nothing
....#Data = CSV.read(filename; delim=’,’, DataFrame)
..#end
..#Tables.CopiedColumns(CSV.File(source; kwargs…)) |> sink
#end
```
---
### Author:  [@jjdegruijter](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jjdegruijter)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2022, 11:45am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-csv-read-to-import-data-from-a-data-input-file-into-a-dataframe/77120/9 "2022-02-27T11:45:13Z")
I copied the comment (with 6 lines). The indentation and my triple backtics disappeared.
---
### Author:  [@lawless-m](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lawless-m)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2022, 12:36pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-csv-read-to-import-data-from-a-data-input-file-into-a-dataframe/77120/10 "2022-02-27T12:36:16Z")
you are not describing the problem you are encountering in your code
---
### Author:  [@jjdegruijter](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jjdegruijter)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2022, 3:30pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-csv-read-to-import-data-from-a-data-input-file-into-a-dataframe/77120/11 "2022-02-27T15:30:12Z")
After my code line ‘Data = CSV.read(filename, DataFrame; delim=‘,’)’ Julia inserted 6 lines of code, all commented.
I didn’t know what to do with it, because I don’t understand what these 6 lines do.
When I uncomment them, and try to extract a collumn from Data by ‘x = Data[:1]’ Iget ‘UndefVarError: Data not defined’.
---
### Author:  [@pdeffebach](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pdeffebach)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2022, 4:08pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-csv-read-to-import-data-from-a-data-input-file-into-a-dataframe/77120/12 "2022-02-27T16:08:52Z")
Run the following code:
```julia
df = DataFrame(a = [1, 2], b = [3, 4])
CSV.write("file.csv", df)
df_new = CSV.read("file.csv", DataFrame)
```
---
### Author:  [@gustaphe](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/gustaphe)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2022, 4:15pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-csv-read-to-import-data-from-a-data-input-file-into-a-dataframe/77120/13 "2022-02-27T16:15:12Z")
Julia is not inserting those comments anywhere. Some other program might be, an editor maybe?
Exactly how are you running the command?
---
### Author:  [@lawless-m](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lawless-m)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2022, 4:42pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-csv-read-to-import-data-from-a-data-input-file-into-a-dataframe/77120/14 "2022-02-27T16:42:40Z")
The commented code is broken, it looks like two code fragments randomly pasted together.
in addition, Data[:1] is not valid code either
what you should be getting is
```julia
julia> Data[:1]
ERROR: ArgumentError: syntax Data[column] is not supported use df[!, column] instead
...
```
---
### Author:  [@jjdegruijter](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jjdegruijter)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2022, 6:06pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-csv-read-to-import-data-from-a-data-input-file-into-a-dataframe/77120/15 "2022-02-27T18:06:24Z")
Thank you! I’m nearly there, but not quite.
I have 5 collumns in my data file, and the first 4 went through.
So I changed naively [3, 4] into [3, 4, 5], but that didn’t work
---
### Author:  [@pdeffebach](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pdeffebach)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2022, 7:03pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-csv-read-to-import-data-from-a-data-input-file-into-a-dataframe/77120/16 "2022-02-27T19:03:13Z")
Can you share the file? Or at least copy and paste the first few lines?
---
### Author:  [@jjdegruijter](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jjdegruijter)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2022, 7:27pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-csv-read-to-import-data-from-a-data-input-file-into-a-dataframe/77120/17 "2022-02-27T19:27:26Z")
1511805.54010775,-3631401.61267572,134,14.0385102411102,1.58792636637882
1511880.54010775,-3631401.61267572,135,14.0623467964249,1.63997535275912
1511955.54010775,-3631401.61267572,136,13.8401810265915,1.48364309144577
1511730.54010775,-3631476.61267572,248,14.3080113191324,1.8129535268525
1511805.54010775,-3631476.61267572,249,14.2710283891669,1.78019664985144
1511880.54010775,-3631476.61267572,250,14.2895778872987,1.79291534883922
1511955.54010775,-3631476.61267572,251,13.9846463218381,1.55426381397442
1512030.54010775,-3631476.61267572,252,13.1978960888864,1.12702376308933
1512105.54010775,-3631476.61267572,253,12.0766192975667,0.867366055025797
---
### Author:  [@pdeffebach](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pdeffebach)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2022, 7:38pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-csv-read-to-import-data-from-a-data-input-file-into-a-dataframe/77120/18 "2022-02-27T19:38:25Z")
Works perfectly for me.
---
### Author:  [@jjdegruijter](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jjdegruijter)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2022, 8:32pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-csv-read-to-import-data-from-a-data-input-file-into-a-dataframe/77120/19 "2022-02-27T20:32:12Z")
Could you also extract the last column?
---
### Author:  [@jjdegruijter](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jjdegruijter)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2022, 9:16pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-csv-read-to-import-data-from-a-data-input-file-into-a-dataframe/77120/20 "2022-02-27T21:16:43Z")
I run this via VSCode
[Next page](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-csv-read-to-import-data-from-a-data-input-file-into-a-dataframe/77120.md?page=2)