Whatever you do in Python you will need to store data for the long term.

There are many things to consider beforehand.

What kind of data do you want to save?
How often do you save this data?
How often do you need to access it?

In this article, we are going to focus mainly on local data storage, but it is good to know that you could also save it online to allow others to access it.

The formats

The most commonly used format in the industry are the following :

text
csv
json
excel
pickle
hdf5
parquet

It is important to note that each of these formats has its own best use case.

TEXT

A text file format is just a file containing plain text without any structure.

If you have to store text once that could be the one. But keep in mind that it is always easier to work with structured data.

How to read a text file in Python

The simplest way to read a text file in Python.

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How to write a text file in Python

Learn how to write a text file in Python in only 4 lines of code.

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CSV

This is probably the one you will encounter the most in Python.

This file type is used to represent a DataFrame format. A bit like an excel spreadsheet.

I wrote an article on How to read/save a CSV file on how to use it with the Pandas library.

How to read a CSV file in Python using Pandas

The simplest way to read csv file in Python.Using the pandas library we can transform the csv into a workable dataframe object that looks just like an excel sheet.

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How to save as CSV file in Python using Pandas

The simplest way to save a CSV file in Python using the Pandas library and to_csv() method.

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JSON

JSON is one of the most famous formats for sharing data across the web.

It is simple to understand and very good a keeping things tidy.

Here are two articles that will show you how to read and write in JSON format.

How to read a JSON file in Python

How to read any JSON file. We explore the simplest methods to read JSON files.Two use-cases using the JSON and the Pandas libraries.

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How to save data in JSON format

How to save data in JSON format in Python using the json library. A simple example of how to save data.

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Excel

Excel is one of the most famous file formats used by millions of people. However, it is not the preferred one for web services or any kind of programmatic data exchange.