python - Python3: writing csv files

Question

I'm trying to use Python 3.2 on a Windows computer to write a simple CSV file, however I'm having no luck. From the csv module documentation for Python 3.2:

>>> import csv
>>> spamWriter = csv.writer(open('eggs.csv', 'w'), delimiter=' ',
...                         quotechar='|', quoting=csv.QUOTE_MINIMAL)
>>> spamWriter.writerow(['Spam'] * 5 + ['Baked Beans'])
>>> spamWriter.writerow(['Spam', 'Lovely Spam', 'Wonderful Spam'])

produces a file with each line terminated by the byte sequence , so it looks like each line has an extra empty line when you open it with, e.g., MS Excel. This is not a "CSV file".

Note, if I try the same example for Python 2.7 in Python 3.2 (where the big difference is 'w' vs 'wb' for the file mode), I get an error when I try spamWriter.writerow:

Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 1, in TypeError: 'str' does not support the buffer interface

How do I write a simple CSV file from Python 3.2 on a Windows computer?

Answer 1

Documentation says that you should use open('eggs.csv', 'w', newline='')

http://docs.python.org/py3k/library/csv.html#id2