How to create a Python Pandas DataFrame from a string?

To create a Python Pandas DataFrame from a string, we use the StringIO class with read_csv.

For instance, we write

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

import pandas as pd

TESTDATA = StringIO("""col1;col2;col3
    1;4.4;99
    2;4.5;200
    3;4.7;65
    4;3.2;140
    """)

df = pd.read_csv(TESTDATA, sep=";")

to create a StringIO instance with a string.

And then we call read_csv with the TESTDATA string with the sep set to the separator for the row items.