Use standard Python types, add a better example and further See Also …

…section to DataFrame.to_csv docstring
pandas-dev · WillAyd · Sep 23, 2018 · Aug 23, 2018 · Aug 23, 2018 · Aug 23, 2018
commit b939239e706b7e815b41e6f47653b98e267e27ca
diff --git a/pandas/core/generic.py b/pandas/core/generic.py
@@ -9368,38 +9368,38 @@ def to_csv(self, path_or_buf=None, sep=",", na_rep='', float_format=None,
 
         Parameters
         ----------
-        path_or_buf : string or file handle, default None
+        path_or_buf : str or file handle, default None
             File path or object, if None is provided the result is returned as
             a string.
             .. versionchanged:: 0.24.0
                 Was previously named "path" for Series.
-        sep : character, default ','
-            Field delimiter for the output file.
-        na_rep : string, default ''
+        sep : str, default ','
+            String of length 1. Field delimiter for the output file.
+        na_rep : str, default ''
             Missing data representation.
-        float_format : string, default None
+        float_format : str, default None
             Format string for floating point numbers.
         columns : sequence, optional
             Columns to write.
-        header : boolean or list of string, default True
+        header : bool or list of str, default True
             Write out the column names. If a list of strings is given it is
             assumed to be aliases for the column names.
             .. versionchanged:: 0.24.0
                 Previously defaulted to False for Series.
-        index : boolean, default True
+        index : bool, default True
             Write row names (index).
-        index_label : string or sequence, or False, default None
+        index_label : str or sequence, or False, default None
             Column label for index column(s) if desired. If None is given, and
             `header` and `index` are True, then the index names are used. A
-            sequence should be given if the object uses MultiIndex.  If
+            sequence should be given if the object uses MultiIndex. If
             False do not print fields for index names. Use index_label=False
             for easier importing in R.
         mode : str
             Python write mode, default 'w'.
-        encoding : string, optional
+        encoding : str, optional
             A string representing the encoding to use in the output file,
             defaults to 'ascii' on Python 2 and 'utf-8' on Python 3.
-        compression : string, default 'infer'
+        compression : str, default 'infer'
             Compression mode among the following possible values: {'infer',
             'gzip', 'bz2', 'zip', 'xz', None}. If 'infer' and `path_or_buf`
             is path-like, then detect compression from the following
@@ -9411,27 +9411,28 @@ def to_csv(self, path_or_buf=None, sep=",", na_rep='', float_format=None,
             Defaults to csv.QUOTE_MINIMAL. If you have set a `float_format`
             then floats are converted to strings and thus csv.QUOTE_NONNUMERIC
             will treat them as non-numeric.
-        quotechar : string (length 1), default '\"'
-            Character used to quote fields.
+        quotechar : str, default '\"'
+            String of length 1. Character used to quote fields.
         line_terminator : string, default ``'\n'``
             The newline character or character sequence to use in the output
             file.
         chunksize : int or None
             Rows to write at a time.
-        tupleize_cols : boolean, default False
+        tupleize_cols : bool, default False
             Write MultiIndex columns as a list of tuples (if True) or in
             the new, expanded format, where each MultiIndex column is a row
             in the CSV (if False).
             .. deprecated:: 0.21.0
                This argument will be removed and will always write each row
                of the multi-index as a separate row in the CSV file.
-        date_format : string, default None
+        date_format : str, default None
             Format string for datetime objects.
-        doublequote : boolean, default True
+        doublequote : bool, default True
             Control quoting of `quotechar` inside a field.
-        escapechar : string (length 1), default None
-            Character used to escape `sep` and `quotechar` when appropriate.
-        decimal : string, default '.'
+        escapechar : str, default None
+            String of length 1. Character used to escape `sep` and `quotechar`
+            when appropriate.
+        decimal : str, default '.'
             Character recognized as decimal separator. E.g. use ',' for
             European data.
 
@@ -9442,14 +9443,15 @@ def to_csv(self, path_or_buf=None, sep=",", na_rep='', float_format=None,
 
         See Also
         --------
-        pandas.read_csv : load a CSV file into a DataFrame
+        pandas.read_csv : Load a CSV file into a DataFrame.
+        pandas.to_excel: Load an Excel file into a DataFrame.
 
         Examples
         --------
-
-        >>> df = pd.DataFrame({'col1': [1], 'col2': ['a'], 'col3': [10.1]})
-        >>> df.to_csv(decimal=',', sep=';', float_format='%.2f', index=False)
-        'col1;col2;col3\n1;a;10,10\n'
+        >>> df = pd.DataFrame({'name': ['Raphael', 'Donatello'],
+        ... 'mask': ['red', 'purple'], 'weapon': ['sai', 'bo staff']})
+        >>> df.to_csv(index=False)
+        'name,mask,weapon\nRaphael,red,sai\nDonatello,purple,bo staff\n'
         """
 
         df = self if isinstance(self, ABCDataFrame) else self.to_frame()