stuff.py

#!/usr/bin/env python                                                                                                                                                                                 
import sys                                                                                                                                                                                            
import csv                                                                                                                                                                                            
# change these                                                                                                                                                                                        
inputfile =  "the-input-file.csv"                                                                                                                                                                     
outputfile = "the-output-file.csv"                                                                                                                                                                    
reader = csv.DictReader(open(inputfile))                                                                                                                                                              
output = open(outputfile, "w")                                                                                                                                                                        
# lazy way to get the Cell_ID column index. I think it's 8 or something                                                                                                                               
                                                                                                                                                                                                      
rows = {}                                                                                                                                                                                             
for row in reader:                                                                                                                                                                                    
    cellid = row['Cell_ID']                                                                                                                                                                           
    if cellid not in rows: # first time we've seen a row with this cellid                                                                                                                             
        rows[cellid] = row                                                                                                                                                                            
        continue                                                                                                                                                                                      
    # we have a row to compare against. Is the area bigger?                                                                                                                                           
    oldarea = rows[cellid]['Area']                                                                                                                                                                    
    newarea = row['Area']                                                                                                                                                                             
    if newarea > oldarea:                                                                                                                                                                             
        rows[cellid] = row                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                      
# print header                                                                                                                                                                                        
output.write( "Cell_ID\tSAND_L1\tSLT_L1\tCLAY_L1\n")                                                                                                                                                  
# now we have a giant dict mapping cellid to row with the greatest area.                                                                                                                              
# iterate over the dict, sorting by cellid and print out interesting columns                                                                                                                          
for cellid in sorted(rows.keys()):                                                                                                                                                                    
    row = rows[cellid]                                                                                                                                                                                
    # % string formatting only works in python2.                                                                                                                                                      
    # do "{}".format(something) in python3                                                                                                                                                            
    output.write("%s\t%s\t%s\t%s\n" % (cellid, row['SAND_L1'], row['SILT_L1'], row['CLAY_L1']))                                                                                                       
output.close()