Reading Files in Python: A Practical Guide to Text, CSV, and JSON

Before you reach for pandas or any other library, it helps to know what Python is actually doing when it reads a file. This guide builds a mental model for three file shapes, then works through open(), csv.reader, csv.DictReader, and json.load on a small set of example files you write and read yourself.

July 3, 2026 in Python by Mehdi Lotfinejad10 minutes