# pandas.errors.ParserError: Error tokenizing data. C error: Expected 5 fields in line 12, saw 7

- **ID:** `python/pandas-csv-parser-error`
- **Domain:** python
- **Category:** data_error
- **Verification:** ai_generated
- **Fix Rate:** 80%

## Root Cause

CSV rows have inconsistent field counts, often from unquoted commas or embedded newlines.

## Version Compatibility

| Version | Status | Introduced | Deprecated |
|---------|--------|------------|------------|
| 3.x | active | — | — |

## Workarounds

1. **** (85% success)
   ```
   pd.read_csv(path, engine='python', on_bad_lines='warn')
   ```
2. **** (90% success)
   ```
   pd.read_csv(path, quoting=csv.QUOTE_MINIMAL, escapechar='\\')
   ```

## Dead Ends

- **** — Silently drops data; root issue persists (70% fail)
- **** — Already comma; delimiter not the issue (85% fail)