How to Read Pickle file in Python : Various Methods with Step

Pickel in python is used to serialize and deserialize a Python object structure. Suppose you want to store data in a byte stream then you have to create a pickle file that will store all the information in a byte stream. Now you can store byte stream information in a file or database. In this tutorial, you will learn how to read a pickle file in python using various methods.

Steps to Read Pickel File in Python

In this section, you will learn how to read pickle files in python in steps. You have to follow all the steps defined here for a better understanding.

Step 1: Create a Dummy Pickle File

The first step is to create a sample pickle file that will be used for reading. However, if you have already saved the pickle file then you can move to the next steps.

Execute the below lines of code to create a dummy pickle file.

import pandas as pd 
data = { "name":["Rob","Maya","Jay"],"age":[20,34,23]}
df = pd.DataFrame(data=data)
df.to_pickle("people.pkl")

Here I am first creating a sample dataframe that has some information and then saving it to a pickle file using the method df.to_pickle().

Dataframe contains the following information.

  name  age
0   Rob   20
1  Maya   34
2   Jay   23

Step 2: Read Pickle File in Python

In this step you will know the various methods to read pickle file in python.

Method 1: Using the pickle module

In the first method, I will use the pickle module. Firstly I will open the pickle file and then appends its content with the empty list.

Run the below lines of code to implement this method.

import pickle
objects = []
with (open("people.pkl", "rb")) as openfile:
    while True:
        try:
            objects.append(pickle.load(openfile))
        except EOFError:
            break

print(objects)

Output

Reading pickle file using the pickle module

Method 2: Read Pickle file in Python using Pandas package

The other method to read pickle file is using the pandas package. There is a read_pickle() function that allows you to read the file. The output will be dataframe.

Use the below lines of code to read the pickle file.

import pandas as pd 
df = pd.read_pickle("people.pkl")
print(df)

Output

Reading pickle file using the pandas module

Conclusion

A pickle file is a very useful file for storing data in the file or database. It is in byte stream and due to it, the space requirement is very less. In machine learning, if you have to build a model then you save the model in a pickle file.

These are the methods to read it. I hope you have liked this tutorial. If you have queries then you can contact us for more help.