from csv import writer class CSV_File_mixin(object): def write_output(self): try: open(self.filename) raise RuntimeError("Can't write to an existing file!") except IOError: pass fh = open(self.filename, "w") csvwriter = writer(fh, dialect='excel', delimiter=',') for line in self.lines: # Line is expected to be an iterable row csvwriter.writerow(line) fh.close()