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Subject: Re: Help parsing a text file
From: Philip Semanchuk <philip@semanchuk.com>
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Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2011 14:31:13 -0400
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On Aug 29, 2011, at 2:21 PM, William Gill wrote:

> I haven't done much with Python for a couple years, bouncing around =
between other languages and scripts as needs suggest, so I have some =
minor difficulty keeping Python functionality Python functionality in my =
head, but I can overcome that as the cobwebs clear.  Though I do seem to =
keep tripping over the same Py2 -> Py3 syntax changes (old habits die =
hard).
>=20
> I have a text file with XML like records that I need to parse.  By XML =
like I mean records have proper opening and closing tags. but fields =
don't have closing tags (they rely on line ends).  Not all fields appear =
in all records, but they do adhere to a defined sequence.
>=20
> My initial passes into Python have been very unfocused (a scatter gun =
of too many possible directions, yielding very messy results), so I'm =
asking for some suggestions, or algorithms (possibly even examples)that =
may help me focus.
>=20
> I'm not asking anyone to write my code, just to nudge me toward a more =
disciplined approach to a common task, and I promise to put in the =
effort to understand the underlying fundamentals.

If the syntax really is close to XML, would it be all that difficult to =
convert it to proper XML? Then you have nice libraries like ElementTree =
to use for parsing.


Cheers
Philip=