Example of how to iterate over an uploaded file in django (2.1) using generic base classes.

django_csv_row_iterator.py

# --- forms.py ---

class CSVImportForm(forms.Form):

    file = forms.FileField()
    comment = forms.CharField(max_length=50, required=False)

    
# --- utils.py ---

csv_sep = ","

person_csv = ("name",
             "surname",
             "birth_date",
             "sex",
             )

def _split_and_clean(row):
    """Split a line and remove any whitespace at the sides of each field."""
    return (field.strip() for field in row.split(csv_sep))

def temp_file_iterator(temp_file, encoding="utf-8"):
    return (_split_and_clean(row) for b_row in temp_file.chunks() for row in b_row.decode(encoding).split("\n")[:-1])


# --- views.py ---

class RowIteratorCSVUpload:

    def get_rows_from_csv(self, temp_file):
        """Return a generator of dicts from the lines of the input temp file."""
        return (dict(zip(self.__class__.csv_header, row)) for row in utils.temp_file_iterator(temp_file))


class PersonCSVUploadView(TemplateView, FormView, RowIteratorCSVUpload):
    template_name = "my_app/person_import.html"
    model = models.Person
    form_class = forms.CSVImportForm
    csv_header = utils.child_csv

    def form_valid(self, form):
        temp_file = form.cleaned_data["file"]

        for row_num, person_dict in enumerate(self.get_rows_from_csv(temp_file)):
            print(row_num, person_dict)