gh-80678: Document the preferred attribute of csv.Sniffer (GH-155068)

https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/1370f8a8a19a1201b2cc27a301a3f8f1d4478764
commit: 1370f8a8a19a1201b2cc27a301a3f8f1d4478764
branch: main
author: Serhiy Storchaka <[email protected]>
committer: serhiy-storchaka <[email protected]>
date: 2026-08-13T13:00:30+03:00
summary:

gh-80678: Document the preferred attribute of csv.Sniffer (GH-155068)

It can be modified to change the order in which the delimiters are
preferred for breaking ties.

files:
M Doc/library/csv.rst

diff --git a/Doc/library/csv.rst b/Doc/library/csv.rst
index 81949261c563d0..e78371f114e0a1 100644
--- a/Doc/library/csv.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/csv.rst
@@ -324,8 +324,8 @@ The :mod:`!csv` module defines the following classes:
 
       If several combinations fit the sample equally well ---
       for example if both ``','`` and ``';'`` split every row consistently ---
-      the delimiters ``','``, ``'\t'``, ``';'``, ``' '`` and ``':'``
-      are preferred, in this order,
+      the delimiters listed in the :attr:`~Sniffer.preferred` attribute
+      are preferred, in that order,
       no matter how many times each of them occurs.
 
       .. versionchanged:: next
@@ -354,6 +354,15 @@ The :mod:`!csv` module defines the following classes:
       This method is a rough heuristic and may produce both false positives and
       negatives.
 
+   The :class:`Sniffer` class has the following attribute:
+
+   .. attribute:: preferred
+
+      The list of the delimiters preferred for breaking ties,
+      in the order of preference.
+      It can be modified.
+      Its initial value is ``[',', '\t', ';', ' ', ':']``.
+
 An example for :class:`Sniffer` use::
 
    with open('example.csv', newline='') as csvfile:

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