How can I look at the start of a file?
The first thing most data scientists do when given a new dataset to analyze is figure out what fields it contains and what values those fields have. If the dataset has been exported from a database or spreadsheet, it will often be stored as comma-separated values (CSV). A quick way to figure out what it contains is to look at the first few rows.
We can do this in the shell using a command called head
.
As its name suggests,
it prints the first few lines of a file
(where "a few" means 10),
so the command:
head seasonal/summer.csv
displays:
Date,Tooth
2017-01-11,canine
2017-01-18,wisdom
2017-01-21,bicuspid
2017-02-02,molar
2017-02-27,wisdom
2017-02-27,wisdom
2017-03-07,bicuspid
2017-03-15,wisdom
2017-03-20,canine
What does head
do if there aren't 10 lines in the file?
(To find out, use it to look at the top of people/agarwal.txt
.)
This exercise is part of the course
Introduction to Shell
Hands-on interactive exercise
Turn theory into action with one of our interactive exercises
