In this tutorial, we'll see how to solve a common Pandas and Python error – "Error: need to escape, but no escapechar set". We get this error from Pandas when we try to save DataFrame as a CSV file.

Let's see several examples of how to reproduce and solve this error.

Pandas - Error: need to escape, but no escapechar set

When we try to use to_csv we may get error in Pandas:

Error: need to escape, but no escapechar set

The example below demonstrate the error:

import pandas
import csv

data = {'A': ['1.0627', '0625', '"LTE,eHRPD"'],
   	 'B': ['0.3', '', '"ZTE\A"'],
  	 }
df = pandas.DataFrame(data)
display(df)

print(df.to_csv(quoting=csv.QUOTE_NONE))

The error is caused by using csv.QUOTE_NONE. Let's check two different solutions to this error.

Pandas to_csv escapechar

First way to solve the error is by using escapechar='\\':

print(df.to_csv(quoting=csv.QUOTE_NONE, quotechar='',escapechar='\\'))

This will produce CSV file as:

,A,B
0,1.0627,0.3
1,0625,
2,"LTE\,eHRPD","ZTE\\A"

Solution - QUOTE_ALL and QUOTE_MINIMAL

Alternatively we can solve the error by setting parameters:

  • quoting=csv.QUOTE_MINIMAL - to only quote fields that contain special characters.
  • quoting=csv.QUOTE_ALL - all fields will be quoted

QUOTE_MINIMAL

We can see the output of:

df.to_csv(quoting=csv.QUOTE_MINIMAL)

the will be quoting the values in row 2:

,A,B
0,1.0627,0.3
1,0625,
2,"""LTE,eHRPD""","""ZTE\A"""

QUOTE_ALL

We can see the output of - QUOTE_ALL:

df.to_csv(quoting=csv.QUOTE_ALL)

then all values will be quoted:

"","A","B"
"0","1.0627","0.3"
"1","0625",""
"2","""LTE,eHRPD""","""ZTE\A"""

Python - Error: need to escape, but no escapechar set

The code below shows how to reproduce Python error - "Error: need to escape, but no escapechar set"

QUOTE_MINIMAL

import csv

data = [["John", "Doe", "john@example.com"], ["Jane", "Doe", "jane@example.com", "Hello, \"world\"!"]]

with open("output.csv", "w", newline="") as f:
    writer = csv.writer(f, quoting=csv.QUOTE_NONE)
    for row in data:
   	 writer.writerow(row)

result:

Error: need to escape, but no escapechar set

So the error is solved by:

writer = csv.writer(f, quoting=csv.QUOTE_MINIMAL)

Filter quoted values

As alternative solution we can filter the values by list comprehension:

import csv

data = [["John", "", "Doe"], ["Jane", " ", "Doe"]]

with open("output.csv", "w", newline="") as f:
    writer = csv.writer(f)
    for row in data:
   	 row = [s if s else " " for s in row]  # filter problematic strings
   	 writer.writerow(row)

Summary

To summarize, in this article, we've seen how to solve Python and Pandas error:

Error: need to escape, but no escapechar set

And finally you can find useful resources which will help you to solve Pandas to_csv output quoting issues.

Resources