# Reader class

class `surprise.reader.``Reader`(name=None, line_format='user item rating', sep=None, rating_scale=(1, 5), skip_lines=0)

  The Reader class is used to parse a file containing ratings.

  Such a file is assumed to specify only one rating per line, and each line needs to respect the following structure:

      user ; item ; rating ; [timestamp]

  where the order of the fields and the separator (here ‘;’) may be arbitrarily defined (see below). brackets indicate that the timestamp field is optional.

  For each built-in dataset, Surprise also provides predefined readers which are useful if you want to use a custom dataset that has the same format as a built-in one (see the `name` parameter).

  Parameters: | name (`string`, optional) – If specified, a Reader for one of the built-in datasets is returned and any other parameter is ignored. Accepted values are ‘ml-100k’, ‘ml-1m’, and ‘jester’. Default is `None`. line_format (`string`) – The fields names, in the order at which they are encountered on a line. Please note that `line_format` is always space-separated (use the `sep` parameter). Default is `'user item rating'`. sep (char) – the separator between fields. Example : `';'`. rating_scale (`tuple`, optional) – The rating scale used for every rating. Default is `(1, 5)`. skip_lines (`int`, optional) – Number of lines to skip at the beginning of the file. Default is `0`.