pandasimportbackwards-compatibilitystringiopython-2to3

Should we use pandas.compat.StringIO or Python 2/3 StringIO?

StringIO is the file-like string buffer object we use when reading pandas dataframe from text, e.g. "How to create a Pandas DataFrame from a string?"

Which of these two imports should we use for StringIO (within pandas)? This is a long-running question that has never been resolved over four years.

  1. StringIO.StringIO (Python 2) / io.StringIO (Python 3)
    • Advantages: more stable for futureproofing code, but forces us to version-fork, e.g. see code at bottom from EmilH.
  2. pandas.compat.StringIO

Version 2/3 forking code for imports from standard (from EmilH):

import sys
if sys.version_info[0] < 3: 
    from StringIO import StringIO
else:
    from io import StringIO

# Note: but this is very much a poor-man's version of pandas.compat, which contains much much more

Note:

Solution

  • I know this is an old question, but I followed breadcrumbs here, so perhaps still worth answering. It's not totally definitive, but current Pandas documentation suggests using the built in StringIO rather than it's own internal methods.

    For examples that use the StringIO class, make sure you import it with from io import StringIO for Python 3.