How to Use encoding/csv for CSV Files in Go

Use the encoding/csv package to read and write CSV files by creating a Reader or Writer from an io.Reader or io.Writer.

package main

import (
	"encoding/csv"
	"fmt"
	"os"
)

func main() {
	// Read CSV
	file, _ := os.Open("data.csv")
	defer file.Close()
	reader := csv.NewReader(file)
	records, _ := reader.ReadAll()
	fmt.Println(records)

	// Write CSV
	out, _ := os.Create("output.csv")
	defer out.Close()
	writer := csv.NewWriter(out)
	writer.Write([]string{"Name", "Age"})
	writer.Write([]string{"Alice", "30"})
	writer.Flush()
}

The encoding/csv package lets your Go program read and write Comma Separated Values files, which are just text files where data is separated by commas. It handles the tricky parts like escaping quotes and newlines automatically so you don't have to parse the text manually. Think of it as a built-in tool that turns a spreadsheet-like text file into a list of data your program can use.