(Python) Program to read specific data from many output files

Question

I recently ran a simulation that output temporal data in directories numbered 0, 0.1, 0.2, ... , 10.

Within each of these directories there is a text file called rigidMotion which contains a line I want to read.

The line looks like:

centreOfRotation (0.000 0.000 0.000) //

where the numbers vary of course.

I would then like only the numbers to be sent to a text file or a csv file so I can plot them.

Given that its the same line in each file I was trying to use linecache but I'm not sure how to set up the for loop to read each directory.

Read the files in a Loop, then maybe apply some regex on the content, i.e. ^centreOfRotation (.+) in multiline mode and grab the first group. Or, read the text line-wise and use startswith(). — Jan
– Jan, Commented May 31, 2016 at 12:15
Great regex would work well. But how do I set up a loop to run through these files? It would be great if I could just go: for (int i = 0; i <=10; i + 0.1) then use open for filename/i but that wouldnt work of course. — Bruce
– Bruce, Commented May 31, 2016 at 12:19

Jieter · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-31 12:16:06Z

2

You can use glob to find files according to a pattern, which in your case might be something like */rigidMotion, then iterate over those files and collect the values, outputting them to a new file.

answered May 31, 2016 at 12:16

Jieter

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Gábor Nagy · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-31 12:22:26Z

1

For the directory reading this worked for me the best in multiple directories:

import os

for subdir, dirs, files in os.walk("your root directory"):
    for file in files:
        print os.path.join(subdir, file)
        #processing the files

For the line processing i would use string trimming if only the numbers change in it.

trimmedString = originalString[a:-b]

where 'a' is the last index what you want to cut from the beginning, and 'b' is for the ending, in your case:

a = the index of the opening bracket

b = index of the closing bracket

answered May 31, 2016 at 12:22

Gábor Nagy

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