title: How to convert .dat to .csv using python?
body: <p><strong>I have a file.dat which looks like:</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>id       | user_id | venue_id | latitude  | longitude | created_at
  
  ---------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+-----------------
  
  984301   |2041916  |5222      |           |           |2012-04-21 17:39:01
  
  984222   |15824    |5222      |38.8951118 |-77.0363658|2012-04-21 17:43:47
  
  984315   |1764391  |5222      |           |           |2012-04-21 17:37:18
  
  984234   |44652    |5222      |33.800745  |-84.41052  | 2012-04-21 17:43:43
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>I need to get csv file with deleted empty latitude and longtitude rows, like:</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>id,user_id,venue_id,latitude,longitude,created_at
  
  984222,15824,5222,38.8951118,-77.0363658,2012-04-21T17:43:47
  
  984234,44652,5222,33.800745,-84.41052,2012-04-21T17:43:43
  
  984291,105054,5222,45.5234515,-122.6762071,2012-04-21T17:39:22
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>I try to do that, using next code:</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>with open('file.dat', 'r') as input_file:
      lines = input_file.readlines()
      newLines = []
      for line in lines:
          newLine = line.strip('|').split()
          newLines.append(newLine)
  
  with open('file.csv', 'w') as output_file:
      file_writer = csv.writer(output_file)
      file_writer.writerows(newLines)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But all the same I get a csv file with "|" symbols and empty latitude/longtitude rows.
  Where is mistake?
  In general I need to use resulting csv-file in DateFrame, so maybe there is some way to reduce number of actions.</p>