lesson2.md

Week 2 Lesson 2

Introduction to Data Formats

In this lesson, you will learn about different kinds of data file formats. First, you will learn about two different kinds of text files: delimiter separated file and a fixed-width format file. Second, you will learn about creating, and reading from a JSON file. Finally, you will learn about what the XML Data format is, how to parse a document, and how to read and write an XML file.

###Objectives ###

By the end of this lesson, you will:

• Understand how to read and write a delimiter separated file.
• Understand how to read and write a fixed width format file.
• Understand how to read and write a JSON format file.
• Understand how to read and write an XML formatted file.

Time Estimate

Approximately 2 hours.

• Course IPython Notebook on Data Formats

• The Delimiter Separated Value format

• The Comma Separated Value format

• Course IPython Notebook on Data Formats

• The JSON Document format

• Course IPython Notebook on Data Formats

• The XML Document format

Optional Additional Readings####

• The W3C Working group document repository for CSV.

• The JSON format

• Storing big data in a JSON like format.

• The XML format

• The SVG format (an XML-based image specification)

• The HTML format (an XML-based document specification).