Python Text file searching

Question

I have a LARGE text file that I am needing to pull several values from. the text file has alot of info I don't need. Is there a way I can serach for a specific term that is in a line and return the first value in that line. Please example below

text
text text
text
text text text
text text

aaaaa     text      sum

text
text
text

I need to search for sum and return the value of aaaaa

Is there a way that I can do this?

Rik Poggi · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-08 09:13:18Z

5

with open(file_path) as infile:
    for line in infile:
        if 'sum' in line:
            print line.split()[0] # Assuming space separated

edited Mar 8, 2012 at 9:13

Rik Poggi

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answered Mar 8, 2012 at 8:54

Kien Truong

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:48:02Z

2

If the text file is indeed big, you can use mmap — Memory-mapped file support as found in here: Python Random Access File.

edited May 23, 2017 at 11:48

CommunityBot

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answered Mar 8, 2012 at 8:54

Nitzan Tomer

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Comments

Ben Russell · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-08 11:00:22Z

0

Are you looking for something like this?

for Line in file("Text.txt", "r"):
  if Line.find("sum") >= 0:
    print Line.split()[0]

Line.split() will split the line up into words, and then you can select with an index which starts from 0, i.e. to select the 2nd word use Line.split()[1]

edited Mar 8, 2012 at 11:00

answered Mar 8, 2012 at 8:52

Ben Russell

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3 Comments

bereal Over a year ago

if 'sum' in Line: ... will work as well. Also, according to the documentation, open is more preferable than file.

Trying_hard Over a year ago

great thanks alot. If I want to print the nest value next to aaaa how would I print the values for 0 and 1. print Line.split()[0,1]??? I get an error with this

Ben Russell Over a year ago

Line.split()[1] should do it.

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