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I'm a Python newbie and I'm having trouble with Regular Expressions when
reading in a text file. Here is a sample layout of the input file:

09/04/2004 Virginia 44 Temple 14
09/04/2004 LSU 22 Oregon State 21
09/09/2004 Troy State 24 Missouri 14

As you can see, the text file contains a list of games. Each game has a
date, a winning team, the winning team's score, the losing team, and the
losing team's score. If I set up my program to import the data with fixed
length format's its no problem. But some of my text files have different
layouts. For instance, some only have one space between a team name and
their score.

Here's how I read in the file using fixed length fields:

filename = sys.argv[1]
file = open (filename, 'r')

schedule = [] # make a list called schedule

while True:
line = file.readline()
if not line: break
game = {} # make a dictionary called game
game['date'] = line[0:10] # fixed length field
game['team1'] = string.strip (line[12:40])
game['score1'] = line[40:42]
game['team2'] = string.strip (line[44:72])
game['score2'] = line[72:74]
schedule.append(game)

file.close()

Note: I'm stripping whitespace from the team names because I don't want
the team name to actually be a fixed length.

How would I set this up to read in the data using Regular expressions?

I've tried this:

while True:
line = file.readline ()
if not line: break
game = {}
datePattern = re.compile('^(\d{2})\D+(\d{2})\D+(\d{4})')

Here's where I get stuck. What do I do from here? I just don't know how
to import the text and assign it to the proper fields using the re module.

Jocknerd <> wrote:
> I'm a Python newbie and I'm having trouble with Regular Expressions when
> reading in a text file. Here is a sample layout of the input file:
>
> 09/04/2004 Virginia 44 Temple 14
> 09/04/2004 LSU 22 Oregon State 21
> 09/09/2004 Troy State 24 Missouri 14
>
> As you can see, the text file contains a list of games. Each game has a
> date, a winning team, the winning team's score, the losing team, and the
> losing team's score. If I set up my program to import the data with fixed
> length format's its no problem. But some of my text files have different
> layouts. For instance, some only have one space between a team name and
> their score.
>
> Here's how I read in the file using fixed length fields:
>
> filename = sys.argv[1]
> file = open (filename, 'r')
>
> schedule = [] # make a list called schedule
>
> while True:
> line = file.readline()
> if not line: break
> game = {} # make a dictionary called game
> game['date'] = line[0:10] # fixed length field
> game['team1'] = string.strip (line[12:40])
> game['score1'] = line[40:42]
> game['team2'] = string.strip (line[44:72])
> game['score2'] = line[72:74]
> schedule.append(game)
>
> file.close()
>
> Note: I'm stripping whitespace from the team names because I don't want
> the team name to actually be a fixed length.
>
> How would I set this up to read in the data using Regular expressions?
>
> I've tried this:
>
> while True:
> line = file.readline ()
> if not line: break
> game = {}
> datePattern = re.compile('^(\d{2})\D+(\d{2})\D+(\d{4})')
>
> Here's where I get stuck. What do I do from here? I just don't know how
> to import the text and assign it to the proper fields using the re module.


Your format is a bit complicated since team's name can be variable
words. But, I'm assuming that they don't have any digit as part of
their name. So, use '\d+' to separate the fields. Eg.
re.split ('\d+', line)
re.split ('(\d+)', line)
re.split ('(\d+)', line[10:])

--
William Park <>
Open Geometry Consulting, Toronto, Canada

Jocknerd wrote:
> How would I set this up to read in the data using Regular expressions?
>
> I've tried this:
>
> while True:
> line = file.readline ()
> if not line: break
> game = {}
> datePattern = re.compile('^(\d{2})\D+(\d{2})\D+(\d{4})')

Regular expressions are tricky. Luckily, there are plenty
of resources available to learn. Here's a suggestion for how
to read your data.

The subtle parts are:
- I'm using re.X so I can document each of the fields in the re
- The team name must only contain letters
[a-zA-Z]+ means "set of letters" (that is, a word)
[a-zA-Z]+(\s[a-zA-Z]+)* means "one or more words separated
by spaces

I also use the ^ and $ symbols to make sure the match is
complete across the whole line.

If you have teams with digits in the name (eg, "49ers") then
you'll have to change the definition of 'word' appropriately.
I made it a strict test to ensure sure there wasn't an accidental
confusion with a score.


import re

pat = re.compile("""
^\s* # allow spaces at the start
(\d\d)/(\d\d)/(\d\d\d\d) # the month, day, and year

\s+ # spaces to the first team name
([a-zA-Z]+(\s+[a-zA-Z]+)*) # one or more words separated by spaces
\s+ # spaces to the first score
(\d+) # the score

\s+ # spaces to the second team name
([a-zA-Z]+(\s+[a-zA-Z]+)*) # one or more words separated by spaces
\s+ # spaces to the second score
(\d+) # the score

\s*$ # allow spaces, up to the end
""", re.X)
tests = [
"09/04/2004 Virginia 44 Temple 14",
"09/04/2004 LSU 22 Oregon State 21",
"09/09/2004 Troy State 24 Missouri 14",
"01/02/2003 Florida State 103 University of Miami 2",
]

for test in tests:
m = pat.match(test)
if not m:
raise AssertionError("test failure")
print "Match results:"
print " month", m.group(1), "day", m.group(2), "year", m.group(3)
print " team #1", m.group(4), "score", m.group(6)
print " team #2", m.group(7), "score", m.group(9)


Here's the output

Match results:
month 09 day 04 year 2004
team #1 Virginia score 44
team #2 Temple score 14
Match results:
month 09 day 04 year 2004
team #1 LSU score 22
team #2 Oregon State score 21
Match results:
month 09 day 09 year 2004
team #1 Troy State score 24
team #2 Missouri score 14
Match results:
month 01 day 02 year 2003
team #1 Florida State score 103
team #2 University of Miami score 2


Andrew

On Fri, Sep 10, 2004 at 10:29:27AM -0400, Jocknerd wrote:
> I'm a Python newbie and I'm having trouble with Regular Expressions when
> reading in a text file. Here is a sample layout of the input file:
>
> 09/04/2004 Virginia 44 Temple 14
> 09/04/2004 LSU 22 Oregon State 21
> 09/09/2004 Troy State 24 Missouri 14
>
> As you can see, the text file contains a list of games. Each game has a
> date, a winning team, the winning team's score, the losing team, and the
> losing team's score. If I set up my program to import the data with fixed
> length format's its no problem. But some of my text files have different
> layouts. For instance, some only have one space between a team name and
> their score.
>
> [...]
>
> I've tried this:
>
> while True:
> line = file.readline ()
> if not line: break
> game = {}
> datePattern = re.compile('^(\d{2})\D+(\d{2})\D+(\d{4})')
>
> Here's where I get stuck. What do I do from here? I just don't know how
> to import the text and assign it to the proper fields using the re module.

how about this:

import re, time, datetime

class Game(object):
def __init__(self, d, t1, t2, s1, s2):
self.date = d
self.team1 = t1
self.team2 = t2
self.score1 = s1
self.score2 = s2

def __str__(self):
return 'On %s, %s beat %s %s-%s' % (self.date,
self.team1,
self.team2,
self.score1,
self.score2)

class Games(Game):
_re = re.compile(r'([\d/]+)'
+ r'\s+(\w[\w\s]+\w)\s+(\d+)' * 2
+ r'\s*$')
def __init__(self, filename):
self.games = []
for line in file('games.csv'):
match = re.search(self._re, line)
if match:
d, t1, s1, t2, s2 = match.groups()
d = time.strptime(d, '%m/%d/%Y') # m/d/Y! yecch!
d = datetime.date(*d[:3])
self.games.append(Game(d, t1, t2, s1, s2))

if __name__ == '__main__':
import sys
for i in Games(sys.argv[1]).games:
print i

woops! looks like I got carried away.

--
John Lenton () -- Random fortune:
Of course you have a purpose -- to find a purpose.

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On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 14:53:32 +0000, William Park wrote:

> Jocknerd <> wrote:
>> I'm a Python newbie and I'm having trouble with Regular Expressions when
>> reading in a text file. Here is a sample layout of the input file:
>>
>> 09/04/2004 Virginia 44 Temple 14
>> 09/04/2004 LSU 22 Oregon State 21
>> 09/09/2004 Troy State 24 Missouri 14
>>
>> As you can see, the text file contains a list of games. Each game has a
>> date, a winning team, the winning team's score, the losing team, and the
>> losing team's score. If I set up my program to import the data with fixed
>> length format's its no problem. But some of my text files have different
>> layouts. For instance, some only have one space between a team name and
>> their score.
>>
>> Here's how I read in the file using fixed length fields:
>>
>> filename = sys.argv[1]
>> file = open (filename, 'r')
>>
>> schedule = [] # make a list called schedule
>>
>> while True:
>> line = file.readline()
>> if not line: break
>> game = {} # make a dictionary called game
>> game['date'] = line[0:10] # fixed length field
>> game['team1'] = string.strip (line[12:40])
>> game['score1'] = line[40:42]
>> game['team2'] = string.strip (line[44:72])
>> game['score2'] = line[72:74]
>> schedule.append(game)
>>
>> file.close()
>>
>> Note: I'm stripping whitespace from the team names because I don't want
>> the team name to actually be a fixed length.
>>
>> How would I set this up to read in the data using Regular expressions?
>>
>> I've tried this:
>>
>> while True:
>> line = file.readline ()
>> if not line: break
>> game = {}
>> datePattern = re.compile('^(\d{2})\D+(\d{2})\D+(\d{4})')
>>
>> Here's where I get stuck. What do I do from here? I just don't know how
>> to import the text and assign it to the proper fields using the re module.
>
>
> Your format is a bit complicated since team's name can be variable
> words. But, I'm assuming that they don't have any digit as part of
> their name. So, use '\d+' to separate the fields. Eg.
> re.split ('\d+', line)
> re.split ('(\d+)', line)
> re.split ('(\d+)', line[10:])

Couldn't figure out re.split. Didn't seem to do what I wanted. Here's
what did work:

#!/usr/bin/python

import re
filename = sys.argv[1]
file = open (filename, 'r')

schedule = []

pattern = re.compile(r'^(.*\D\d+\D\d+)\D(.*)\D(.*\d+)\D(.*)\ D(.*\d+)(.*)$')
while True:
line = file.readline()
if not line: break
g = {}
g['date'], g['team1'], g['score1'], g['team2'],
g['score2'],g['location'] = pattern.search(line).groups()
schedule.append(g)
file.close()

for game in schedule:
print game['date'], game['team1'], game['score1'], game['team2'],
game['score2']

Jocknerd <> wrote:
> >> 09/04/2004 Virginia 44 Temple 14
> >> 09/04/2004 LSU 22 Oregon State 21
> >> 09/09/2004 Troy State 24 Missouri 14

> > Your format is a bit complicated since team's name can be variable
> > words. But, I'm assuming that they don't have any digit as part of
> > their name. So, use '\d+' to separate the fields. Eg.
> > re.split ('\d+', line)
> > re.split ('(\d+)', line)
> > re.split ('(\d+)', line[10:])
>
> Couldn't figure out re.split. Didn't seem to do what I wanted. Here's
> what did work:
>
> #!/usr/bin/python
>
> import re
> filename = sys.argv[1]
> file = open (filename, 'r')
>
> schedule = []
>
> pattern = re.compile(r'^(.*\D\d+\D\d+)\D(.*)\D(.*\d+)\D(.*)\ D(.*\d+)(.*)$')
> while True:
> line = file.readline()
> if not line: break
> g = {}
> g['date'], g['team1'], g['score1'], g['team2'],
> g['score2'],g['location'] = pattern.search(line).groups()
> schedule.append(g)
> file.close()
>
> for game in schedule:
> print game['date'], game['team1'], game['score1'], game['team2'],
> game['score2']


In Bash shell, this kind of cut/slicing is a bit easier.

1. line='09/09/2004 Troy State 24 Missouri 14'
sscanf "$line" '%s %[^0-9] %[0-9] %[^0-9] %[0-9]' date team1 score1 team2 score2
declare -p date team1 score1 team2 score2

2. line='09/09/2004 Troy State 24 Missouri 14'
match "$line" '([0-9/]*) ([^0-9]*) ([0-9]*) ([^0-9]*) ([0-9]*)' a
date=a[1]
team1=a[2] score1=a[3]
team2=a[4] score2=a[5]
declare -p date team1 score1 team2 score2

Ref:
http://freshmeat.net/projects/bashdiff/
http://home.eol.ca/~parkw/index.html#bash
help sscanf
help match

--
William Park <>
Open Geometry Consulting, Toronto, Canada

Jocknerd wrote:
> pattern = re.compile(r'^(.*\D\d+\D\d+)\D(.*)\D(.*\d+)\D(.*)\ D(.*\d+)(.*)$')

Though I think that's esthetically poor. The .* groups
will cause a lot of backtracking.

Andrew