How to Print Files Side-by-Side in Python

In Python, various functionalities can be utilized to perform manipulative tasks, which include printing files side-by-side. Python is a multipurpose language that provides a plethora of methods and functions, one among them lets you print files side-by-side. This tutorial will walk you through the detailed steps to perform this task.

Step 1: Create two CSV files:

Step 2: Importing Required Module

After successful installation, you’ll need to import the Pandas module into your Python script. By doing this, you’ll be able to utilize the functionalities of pandas in your script.

1
import pandas as pd

Step 3: Read the input Files

In our scenario, we assume you have two files: file1 and file2 that you want to print side by side. We will read these files using the pandas read_csv() function as shown below:

1
2
file1 = pd.read_csv('file1.csv')
file2 = pd.read_csv('file2.csv')

Step 4: Concatenating the Files Side-by-Side

With the loaded data, we can use pandas’ concat() function to concatenate the dataframes side by side by specifying the axis=1 parameter.

Example:

1
side_by_side = pd.concat([file1, file2], axis=1)

Step 5: Printing the Resultant File

Finally, we can print the resultant dataframe (side_by_side), which includes the data from both files, printed side by side.

1
print(side_by_side)

The Final Python code:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
import pandas as pd
 
file1 = pd.read_csv('file1.csv')
file2 = pd.read_csv('file2.csv')
 
side_by_side = pd.concat([file1, file2], axis=1)
 
print(side_by_side)

Output

Empty DataFrame
Columns: [a, b, c, d, e, f]
Index: []

Conclusion

Python with its extensive libraries and packages makes file manipulation tasks easy and straightforward. In this tutorial, we’ve learned how to utilize the Pandas library to print files side-by-side. This can be very useful in situations where you want to compare data in two files or merge data from different sources.