Convert data in String format to List - python

Question

I have a text file with a data structure like this:

01/May/1998:15:28:53    test123 0   383L    281L    399
01/May/1998:14:23:28    doe821  62C 621L    379
01/May/1998:22:10:11    testABC 0   635R    407R    671R    671N    407N    407Q    407L    496L    569

Every data begins with date and time formatted like this: 01/May/1998:15:28:53.

I started with reading the text file, but now I want to convert it into a list. How can I do this? Do I need regex?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: I want this output:

    [
      ['01/May/1998:15:28:53', 'test123', '0', '383L', '281L', '399'],
      ['01/May/1998:14:23:28', 'doe821', '62C', '621L', '379'],
      ['01/May/1998:22:10:11', 'testABC', '0', '635R', '407R', '671R', '671N', '407N', '407Q', '407L', '496L', '569']
    ]

Totem · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-13 10:02:30Z

2

Calling str.split() on each line will give you:

 ['01/May/1998:15:28:53', 'test123', '0', '383L', '281L', '399']

As in:

with open('textfile') as f:
    for line in f:
        print line.split()

['01/May/1998:15:28:53', 'test123', '0', '383L', '281L', '399']
['01/May/1998:14:23:28', 'doe821', '62C', '621L', '379']
['01/May/1998:22:10:11', 'testABC', '0', '635R', '407R', '671R', '671N', '407N', '407Q', '407L', '496L', '569']

To get each line as one list item:

with open('textfile') as f:
    print f.readlines() # note the newline chars(\n) that may need slicing off

['01/May/1998:15:28:53    test123 0   383L    281L    399\n', '01/May/1998:14:23:28    doe821  62C 621L    379\n', '01/May/1998:22:10:11    testABC 0   635R    407R    671R    671N    407N    407Q    407L    496L    569\n']

To get each line split and within one big list:

with open('textfile') as f:
    print [line.split() for line in f]

[['01/May/1998:15:28:53', 'test123', '0', '383L', '281L', '399'], ['01/May/1998:14:23:28', 'doe821', '62C', '621L', '379'], ['01/May/1998:22:10:11', 'testABC', '0', '635R', '407R', '671R', '671N', '407N', '407Q', '407L', '496L', '569']]

edited Nov 13, 2014 at 10:02

answered Nov 13, 2014 at 9:49

Totem

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3 Comments

user3475602 Over a year ago

Thank you for your help. I wanted to have one data entry as one list entry. However, this actually is a better idea, but I need multiple data entries within the list, should I loop over and add the list entry to an array?

Totem Over a year ago

can you add an example of the output you want to your post?

user3475602 Over a year ago

Thank you so much! I love you!

Aesthete · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-13 09:59:34Z

0

Assuming your file is called test.data

>>> with open('test.data') as f:
>>>     [x for x in [y.split() for y in f.read().split('\n')]]

answered Nov 13, 2014 at 9:59

Aesthete

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