Pandas reading csv as string type

Question

I have a data frame with alpha-numeric keys which I want to save as a csv and read back later. For various reasons I need to explicitly read this key column as a string form

Answer 1

Use a converter that applies to any column if you don't know the columns before hand:

import pandas as pd

class StringConverter(dict):
    def __contains__(self, item):
        return True

    def __getitem__(self, item):
        return str

    def get(self, default=None):
        return str

pd.read_csv(file_or_buffer, converters=StringConverter())