Python-exercise-for-graduates

Please send any questions and the script when ready to: mario.farina@kantarmedia.com

You can also publish the script to your GitHub if you have one.

The task

The task is to write a script that reads the two files Data file 1.csv and Data file 2.csv and combines them into a new file. The result should be the same as the file Data file full.csv, which is only provided as an example of what the result should look like.

Both files are CSVs (comma separated) with two fields:

1. Serial ID
2. A variable

The output of the script should have the following fields

1. Serial ID
2. Variable from Data file 1
3. Variable from Data file 2

Effectively your program will do the same as an Excel lookup, which is matching the Serial IDs in both files to add the information from Data file 2 to Data file 1.

In order to complete the task you need to know how to:

Reading and writing files

• http://www.afterhoursprogramming.com/tutorial/Python/Reading-Files/
• http://www.pythonforbeginners.com/files/reading-and-writing-files-in-python

Deal with substrings

• http://www.tutorialspoint.com/python/python_strings.htm http://stackoverflow.com/questions/663171/is-there-a-way-to-substring-a-string-in-python

Loop through every line in the files

• http://www.tutorialspoint.com/python/python_for_loop.htm

Split comma delimited fields in strings

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7844118/how-to-convert-comma-delimited-string-to-list-in-python

Use dictionaries

• https://www.tutorialspoint.com/python/python_dictionary.htm

There is also a Script.py file with some pseudocode to get you started.

If you are new to programming or Python

Install the Anaconda package. I recommend 3.6.

• https://www.anaconda.com/download/#windows

Once the installation is complete, you can launch Spyder and start scripting! This tutorial can help.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5GevIHNctM

Other languages

Feel free to complete the exercise in C# or Java if you prefer.