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Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2013 23:14:20 +0100
Subject: Re: Proper use of the codecs module.
From: Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com>
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Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:52610

On Fri, Aug 16, 2013 at 3:02 PM, Andrew <andrew@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> I have a mixed binary/text file[0], and the text portions use a radically
> nonstandard character set. I want to read them easily given information
> about the character encoding and an offset for the beginning of a string.

To add to all the information already given: Is the file small enough
to comfortably fit into memory? If so, you'll find it a LOT easier to
play with strings in RAM than files on disk. Even if not, you may find
a lot of tasks simplified by just reading a kay or a meg in and then
working within that. That spares you the fiddliness of read(1) all the
time, at the expense of potentially reading more than you need.

ChrisA