When you encounter the error pandas.errors.EmptyDataError: No columns to parse from file, it means that the file you are trying to read with pandas does not contain any columns. This error typically occurs when you try to parse an empty file or a file with no data.
To demonstrate this error, let’s consider an example where we have a CSV file named “example.csv” that contains no data:
# example.csv
Now, if we try to read this file using pandas and attempt to print its contents, the EmptyDataError will occur:
import pandas as pd
try:
df = pd.read_csv("example.csv")
print(df)
except pd.errors.EmptyDataError:
print("No data found in the file.")
In the above example, the read_csv() method from pandas is used to read the file “example.csv”. However, as the file is empty, an EmptyDataError is raised. To handle this error, we have used a try-except block, catching the EmptyDataError specifically and printing a custom error message.
The output will be:
No data found in the file.
It’s important to note that this error can also occur if the file is not in the expected format, such as not having a proper header or delimiter.
To resolve this error, you can check the file to ensure it contains data and adheres to the expected format. You can also use additional parameters of the read_csv() method, such as specifying the delimiter or header, to handle different file formats.