what does 'rb' mean in csv files?

Question

import csv
with open('test.csv','rb') as file:
    rows = csv.reader(file, 
                      delimiter = ',', 
                      quotechar = '"')
    data = [data for data in rows]

This was in Python: reading in a csv file and saving columns as variables. I couldn't comment, but I'm really confused. What does 'rb' mean?

Solution 1

It means: Read the file in Binary mode.

For a complete list of options view this.

Solution 2

From open() in the Built-in functions documentation:

open(name[, mode[, buffering]])

The most commonly-used values of mode are 'r' for reading, (...) Thus, when opening a binary file, you should append 'b' to the mode value to open the file in binary mode, which will improve portability.

So this opens the file to read in a binary mode.

Solution 3

The second argument o open() is the mode the file will be opened in. 'rb' is for Read Binary mode. Read more about it here

Comments

[lrnzcig]

Quite a few questions on this, e.g. this one