How to split a text file into a nested array?

Question

Working on a project creating a python flask website that stores user logins into a text file. I have a text file where each line is one user and each user has 5 parameters stored on the line. All user parameters are separated by a ; character.

Parameters are:

username
password
first name
last name
background color
title
avatar

Sample of the text file:

joebob;pass1;joe;bob;yellow;My title!!;https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Stick_Figure.jpg
richlong;pass2;rich;long;blue;My title2!!;https://www.iconspng.com/images/stick-figure-walking/stick-figure-walking.jpg

How do I go about storing the parameters into a python array, and how do I access them later when I need to reference log-ins.

Here is what I wrote so far:

accounts = { }
def readAccounts():
    file = open("assignment11-account-info.txt", "r")
    for accounts in file: #line
        tmp = accounts.split(';')
        for data in tmp: #data in line
            accounts[data[0]] = {
                'user': data[0],
                'pass': data[1],
                'first': data[2],
                'last': data[3],
                'color': data[4],
                'title': data[5],
                'avatar': data[6].rstrip()
            }
        file.close()

Your username is unique??

Mayur Fartade
– Mayur Fartade

2020-05-01 04:37:59 +00:00
Commented May 1, 2020 at 4:37 — Mayur Fartade
– Mayur Fartade, Commented May 1, 2020 at 4:37

Luv · Accepted Answer · 2020-05-01 04:49:04Z

1

You can use the python builtin csv to parse

import csv

with open("assignment11-account-info.txt", "r") as file:
    reader = csv.reader(file, delimiter=';')
    result = []
    for row in reader:
        fields = ('user', 'passwd', 'first', 'last', 'color','title','avatar')
        res = dict(zip(fields, row))
        result.append(res)

Or equivalent but harder to read for a beginner the pythonic list comprehension:

with open("assignment11-account-info.txt", "r") as file:
        reader = csv.reader(file, delimiter=';')
        fields = ('user', 'passwd', 'first', 'last', 'color','title','avatar')
        result = [ dict(zip(fields, row)) for row in reader ]

edited May 1, 2020 at 4:49

answered May 1, 2020 at 4:38

Luv

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Comments

Alex Reynolds · Accepted Answer · 2020-05-01 04:55:15Z

Here's what I might do:

accounts = {}
with open("assignment11-account-info.txt", "r") as file:
  for line in file:
    fields = line.rstrip().split(";")
    user = fields[0]
    pass = fields[1]
    first = fields[2]
    last = fields[3]
    color = fields[4]
    title = fields[5] 
    avatar = fields[6]
    accounts[user] = {
      "user" : user,
      "pass" : pass,
      "first" : first,
      "last" : last,
      "color" : color,
      "title" : title,
      "avatar" : avatar
    }

By using with, the file handle file is closed for you automatically. This is the most "Python"-ic way of doing things.

So long as user is unique, you won't overwrite any entries you put in as you read through the file assignment11-account-info.txt.

If you need to deal with a case where user is repeated in the file assignment11-account-info.txt, then you need to use an array or list ([...]) as opposed to a dictionary ({...}). This is because reusing the value of user will overwrite any previous user entry you add to accounts. Overwriting existing entries is almost always a bad thing when using dictionaries!

If that is the case, I might do the following:

accounts = {}
with open("assignment11-account-info.txt", "r") as file:
  for line in file:
    fields = line.rstrip().split(";")
    user = fields[0]
    pass = fields[1]
    first = fields[2]
    last = fields[3]
    color = fields[4]
    title = fields[5] 
    avatar = fields[6]
    if user not in accounts:
      accounts[user] = []
    accounts[user].append({
      "user" : user,
      "pass" : pass,
      "first" : first,
      "last" : last,
      "color" : color,
      "title" : title,
      "avatar" : avatar
    })

In this way, you preserve any cases where user is duplicated.

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