gistfile1.py

import os
import sys
import csv

def get_players(path):
# Returns a list of player names from CSV file
    reader=csv.reader(open(path,'U'),delimiter=',')
    '''
    players=[]
    row_num=0
    for row in reader:
        if row_num<1:
        # Ignore the column headers
            row_num+=1
        else:
        # Player names are in the first column,
        # so we add data from index 0
            players.append(row[0])
    '''
    # A much more succint method for extracting the player names
    # was suggested by Michael Bommarito @mjbommar and is used below
    reader.next()
    return [row[0] for row in reader]

player_file_path='NYG_DRAFT_PICKS.csv'
players=get_players(player_file_path)