File Formats

Question 1

What does CSV stand for?

Answer 1

Comma Separated Values

Question 2

What type of file is plain text with fields separated by commas (,) typically storing data in a tabular format with the same number of fields on each line (row) of the file?

Answer 2

CSV

Question 3

Since the file suffix .yaml is the official file extension for YAML files, it is the only extension that is valid.

Answer 3

False. YML is also valid.

Question 4

XML has been a W3C standard since:

Answer 4

1998

Question 5

XML’s syntax is very similar to what other format?

Answer 5

HTML

Question 6

What file type is used by Anaconda for its configuration files?

Answer 6

YAML

Question 7

The ZIP file format was originally created and implemented by PKWARE via the utility:

Answer 7

PKZIP

Question 8

What file format is often associated with Microsoft Excel and/or Google Spreadsheets?

Answer 8

CSV

Question 9

What file type can easily be created using Python Dictionaries {key: value, key: value, …

Answer 9

JSON

Question 10

What file type uses Python-style indention for structure?

Answer 10

YAML

Question 11

What does XML stand for?

Answer 11

extensible markup language

Question 12

What does YAML stand for?

Answer 12

YAML Ain’t Markup Language

Question 13

XML is:

Answer 13

• typically design to carry data, not display it like HTML
• frequently used to save and share structured data, often over the internet
• designed to be self-descriptive (you define your own tags

Question 14

JSON is:

Answer 14

• language independent, even though it is derived from JS
• lightweight, text-based format used for data interchange
• used to transmit data between a server and web apps (think about REST APIs)
• a popular alternative to XML

Question 15

YAML is:

Answer 15

• a human readable data-serialization language
• commonly used for configuration files and data storage or transmission
• supports 3 basic data types:
  
  • scalars (string, ints, floats)
  • lists
  • associative arrays (maps, dicts, hashes)

Question 16

ZIP:

Answer 16

• format commonly used for archives and compression

- was quickly supported by many other utilities, including built-in versions in Windows and Mac OSX

Question 17

To open a TXT file:

Answer 17

• use open()
• using “with open(…)” will eliminate you from having to close() the file

- Example: 
with open('classic_books.txt') as file:
    reader = csv.reader(file)

for row in reader:
    book_data = "".join(row).split("|")
    classics.append(book_data)

Question 18

How do you display the first or last five records in a DataFrame?

Answer 18

df.head() or df.tail()

Question 19

json.load()

Answer 19

• JSON -> python object

- deserializes a fp (.read-supporting text file containing JSON) into a python object

Question 20

json.dumps()

Answer 20

• Python object -> JSON string

- serializes an object as a JSON string

Question 21

json.dump()

Answer 21

• Object -> JSON formatted stream

- serializes an object as a JSON formatted stream (fp - .write-supporting file-like object)

Question 22

How do you read a YAML file?

Answer 22

• use yaml.load()

- Example:
with open('classic_books.yaml') as file:
    classics_dict = yaml.load(file, Loader=yaml.FullLoader)

Question 23

How do you read and parse an XML file?

Answer 23

• ElementTree.parse()

- ET.getroot() gets the root of the tree

Question 24

How do you write a zip file?

Answer 24

• zipfile.ZipFile()
• Example:
  with zipfile.ZipFile(‘CSC221Lab7.zip’, ‘w’) as outfile:
  for file in files_to_zip:
  outfile.write(file)