import csv field = 1 data = [] with open('input.csv') as csvfile: readCSV = csv.reader(csvfile, delimiter=',') for row in readCSV: data.append(row) def getKey(item): return item[field] sorted = sorted(data, key=getKey) f = open('output.csv','w') for i in sorted: s = ",".join(i) f.write(s + '\n') f.write(s + '\n')