How do you add a header to an excel csv file using python

Question

So I'm trying to add a header to a csv file dynamically. My current code looks like the following:

import csv
from datetime import datetime
import pandas as pd


rows = []

with open(r'Test_Timestamp.csv', 'r', newline='') as file:
    with open(r'Test_Timestamp_Result.csv', 'w', newline='') as file2:
        reader = csv.reader(file, delimiter=',')
        for row in reader:
            rows.append(row)
        file_write = csv.writer(file2)
        for val in rows:
            current_date_time = datetime.now().replace(hour=0, minute=0, second=0, microsecond=0)
            val.insert(0, current_date_time)
            file_write.writerow(val)

Currently how this works is it inserts a new timestamp at column A which is exactly what I want it to do, as I want everything to be pushed as I'll be working with csv files with various different number of columns. What I'm having trouble with is, how am I able to add a column header? Currently a timestamp is created next to the header. I would want to create a new header named: Execution_Date

I have looked at pandas as a solution but from the documentation I've seen the examples given looks like its a set of column headers already pre-determined. I've tried inserting a column header with df.insert(0, "Execution_Date", current_date_time) but gives me an error when trying to accomplish this.

I know I'm fairly close to doing this but I'm running into errors. Is there a way to do this dynamically so it automatically does this with various different csv files and number of different columns in each csv file, etc.? The current output looks like:

What I want the final result to look like is:

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated! I'm going to continue to see if I can solve this in the meantime, but I'm at a wall with how to proceed.

Answer 1

One way to do this is to utilize to_csv().

Example:

# importing python package
import pandas as pd
  
# read contents of csv file
file = pd.read_csv("gfg.csv")
print("\nOriginal file:")
print(file)
  
# adding header
headerList = ['id', 'name', 'profession']
  
# converting data frame to csv
file.to_csv("gfg2.csv", header=headerList, index=False)
  
# display modified csv file
file2 = pd.read_csv("gfg2.csv")
print('\nModified file:')enter code here
print(file2)