From CSV sheets to InDesign

meeseeks.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

# Copy this code into a file called meeseeks.py
# Run like: $ python meeseeks.py file_1.csv file_2.csv file_3.csv
# Output is a new csv called meeseeks.csv

import csv
import sys
import os

# Get files list
files = sys.argv[1:]

# Check if all files listed actually exist and error if any dont
not_files = filter(lambda f: not os.path.isfile(f), files)
if len(not_files) > 0:
    wat = ', '.join(not_files)
    error_msg = "I'm a stickler meeseeks. These files don't exist: %s" % wat
    sys.exit(error_msg)

# Each file is represented as an item in files data.
# Each row in the file is accumulated as a flat list
files_data = []

# The header data is a list of cell labels and is computed from first file
header_data = []

# We accumulate row labels only from first file
row_label = 'a'

for file_counter, f in enumerate(files):
    file_data = []
    with open(f, 'rb') as csvfile:
        csvreader = csv.reader(csvfile)
        cols = len(csvreader.next()) # consume header line while counting columns
        for row in csvreader:
            # create header line from first file as row label+column number for
            # each item
            if file_counter == 1:
                header_data = header_data + [row_label + str(i) for i in xrange(cols)]
                row_label = chr(ord(row_label) + 1) # increment label
            # every row in input csv is put on a single line in output
            file_data = file_data + row
    # every input file is a single line of output csv
    files_data.append(file_data)

# write output to meeseeks.csv
with open('meeseeks.csv', 'wb') as csvfile:
    output = csv.writer(csvfile)
    output.writerow(header_data)
    for row in files_data:
        output.writerow(row)