title: Get the earliest date from a column (Python Pandas) after csv.reader
body: <p>I load some data from a CSV file with multiple columns. In my csv.reader I have an IF function. I am trying to get the earliest date from a specific column (Start Date). </p>
  
  <p>I first load the data:</p>
  
  <pre><code>for row in csv.reader(open('myFile.csv')):
    if row[4] == '56886':
      key = row[4] #key = (row[4], row[33][:4], row[4])
      startDate = row[19]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When I print the column (startDate) I am getting this:</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/3YhR7.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/3YhR7.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
  
  <p>01) I tried using the below:</p>
  
  <pre><code>content = min(content)
  print(content)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and I got this in terminal:</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/PhHBw.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/PhHBw.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
  
  <p>02) Then I tried changing my code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>for row in csv.reader(open('myFile.csv',
          parse_dates=['Start Date'], 
          usecols=['Start Date']))
    if row[4] == '56886':
      key = row[4] #key = (row[4], row[33][:4], row[4])
      startDate = row[19]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and I got an <strong>invalid syntax</strong> error.</p>
  
  <p>03) I tried changing the line to:</p>
  
  <pre><code>pandas.read_csv('myFile.csv', parse_dates=['Start Date'], usecols=['Start Date'])
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and I got the same error.</p>
  
  <p>What is the best workaround? I have not found a solution so far. </p>