python 3 tab-delimited file adds column file.write - python-3.x

Question

I'm writing string entries to a tab-delimited file in Python 3. The code that I use to save the content is:
savedir = easygui.diropenbox()
savefile = input("Please type the filename (including extension): ")
file = open(os.path.join(savedir, savefile), "w", encoding="utf-8")
file.write("Number of entities not found: " + str(missing_count) + "\n")
sep = "\t"
for entry in entities:
file.write(entry[0]+"\t")
for item in entry:
file.write(sep.join(item[0]))
file.write("\t")
file.write("\n")
file.close()
The file saves properly. There are no errors or warnings sent to the terminal. When I open the file, I find an extra column has been saved to the file.
Query | Extra | Name
Abu-Jamal, Mumia | A | Mumia Abu-Jamal
Anderson, Walter | A | Walter Inglis Anderson
Anderson, Walter | A | Walter Inglis Anderson
I've added vertical bars between the tabs for clarity; they don't normally appear there. As well, I have removed a few columns at the end. The column between the vertical bars is not supposed to be there. The document that is saved to file is longer than three lines. On each line, the extra column is the first letter of the Query column. Hence, we have A's in these three examples.
entry[0] corresponds exactly to the value in the Query column.
sep.join(item[0]) corresponds exactly to columns 3+.
Any idea why I would be getting this extra column?
Edit: I'm adding the full code for this short script.
# =============================================================================
# Code to query DBpedia for named entities.
#
# =============================================================================
import requests
import xml.etree.ElementTree as et
import csv
import os
import easygui
import re
# =============================================================================
# Default return type is XML. Others: json.
# Classes are: Resource (general), Place, Person, Work, Species, Organization
# but don't include resource as one of the
# =============================================================================
def urlBuilder(query, queryClass="unknown", returns=10):
prefix = 'http://lookup.dbpedia.org/api/search/KeywordSearch?'
#Selects the appropriate QueryClass for the url
if queryClass == 'place':
qClass = 'QueryClass=place'
elif queryClass == 'person':
qClass = 'QueryClass=person'
elif queryClass == 'org':
qClass = 'QueryClass=organization'
else:
qClass = 'QueryClass='
#Sets the QueryString
qString = "QueryString=" + str(query)
#sets the number of returns
qHits = "MaxHits=" + str(returns)
#full url
dbpURL = prefix + qClass + "&" + qString + "&" + qHits
return dbpURL
#takes a xml doc as STRING and returns an array with the name and the URI
def getdbpRecord(xmlpath):
root = et.fromstring(xmlpath)
dbpRecord = []
for child in root:
temp = []
temp.append(child[0].text)
temp.append(child[1].text)
if child[2].text is None:
temp.append("Empty")
else:
temp.append(findDates(child[2].text))
dbpRecord.append(temp)
return dbpRecord
#looks for a date with pattern: 1900-01-01 OR 01 January 1900 OR 1 January 1900
def findDates(x):
pattern = re.compile('\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}|\d{2}\s\w{3,9}\s\d{4}|\d{1}\s\w{3,9}\s\d{4}')
returns = pattern.findall(x)
if len(returns) > 0:
return ";".join(returns)
else:
return "None"
#%%
# =============================================================================
# Build and send get requests
# =============================================================================
print("Please select the CSV file that contains your data.")
csvfilename = easygui.fileopenbox("Please select the CSV file that contains your data.")
lookups = []
name_list = csv.reader(open(csvfilename, newline=''), delimiter=",")
for name in name_list:
lookups.append(name)
#request to get the max number of returns from the user.
temp = input("Specify the maximum number of returns desired: ")
if temp.isdigit():
maxHits = temp
else:
maxHits = 10
queries = []
print("Building queries. Please wait.")
for search in lookups:
if len(search) == 2:
queries.append([search[0], urlBuilder(query=search[0], queryClass=search[1], returns=maxHits)])
else:
queries.append([search, urlBuilder(query=search, returns=maxHits)])
responses = []
print("Gathering responses. Please wait.")
for item in queries:
response = requests.get(item[1])
data = response.content.decode("utf-8")
responses.append([item[0], data])
entities = []
missing_count = 0
for item in responses:
temp = []
if len(list(et.fromstring(item[1]))) > 0:
entities.append([item[0], getdbpRecord(item[1])])
else:
missing_count += 1
print("There are " + str(missing_count) + " entities that were not found.")
print("Please select the destination folder for the results of the VIAF lookup.")
savedir = easygui.diropenbox("Please select the destination folder for the results of the VIAF lookup.")
savefile = input("Please type the filename (including extension): ")
file = open(os.path.join(savedir, savefile), "w", encoding="utf-8")
file.write("Number of entities not found: " + str(missing_count) + "\n")
sep = "\t"
for entry in entities:
file.write(entry[0]+"\t")
for item in entry:
file.write(sep.join(item[0]))
file.write("\t")
file.write("\n")
file.close()