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.)

Possible answers

Print an error message because the file is too short.

Display as many lines as there are.

Display enough blank lines to bring the total to 10.

Exercise

How can I look at the start of a file?

Instructions

Possible answers