Creating "Clean" INI files

[William Manley]

Hello.

I've been using the ConfigParser module, which is a great module, gets the job done, but when it creates INI files its hard to read them. Heres what I mean, currently, when written to, the INI files look something like this:

[a]
something = somethingelse
[c]
5 = True
1 = false
3 = False
2 = True
4 = True
[b]
d = 1
a = 3
c = 6
b = 2

I'd like to modify the module to make them look like this:

[a]
something = somethingelse
[b]
a = 3
b = 2
c = 6
d = 1
[c]
1 = false
2 = True
3 = False
4 = True
5 = True
 

See what I mean? Anyone have any ideas on how I can accomplish this? thanks.

[bartonc]

Hello.

I've been using the ConfigParser module, which is a great module, gets the job done, but when it creates INI files its hard to read them. Heres what I mean, currently, when written to, the INI files look something like this:

[a]
something = somethingelse
[c]
5 = True
1 = false
3 = False
2 = True
4 = True
[b]
d = 1
a = 3
c = 6
b = 2

I'd like to modify the module to make them look like this:

[a]
something = somethingelse
[b]
a = 3
b = 2
c = 6
d = 1
[c]
1 = false
2 = True
3 = False
4 = True
5 = True
 

See what I mean? Anyone have any ideas on how I can accomplish this? thanks.

Cool... Makes me wish I was using CP. Here's the idea:
Derive from CP:

class MyConfigParser(ConfigParser):
    # and override the write method
    def write(self, fp):
        # and sort the dictionary keys before calling fp.write()

.
Sounds like fun. If you need help, we're here.

[William Manley]

okay, sorting the sections is easy, thats just a list. but i've never sorted a dictionary before. how would i sort the keys?

for (key, value) in self._sections[section].items():

[bartonc]

okay, sorting the sections is easy, thats just a list. but i've never sorted a dictionary before. how would i sort the keys?

for (key, value) in self._sections[section].items():

I know that there is a better way, but at the moment this works:
Make a list from the dict.keys(), sort it, iterate over it:

>>> d = dict(a=1,b=2,c= 3)
>>> d
{'a': 1, 'c': 3, 'b': 2}

>>> l = d.keys()
>>> l
['a', 'c', 'b']

>>> l.sort()
>>> l
['a', 'b', 'c']

>>> for key in l:
... print d[key]
...
1
2
3
>>>

[bartonc]

I know that there is a better way, but at the moment this works:
Make a list from the dict.keys(), sort it, iterate over it:

>>> d = dict(a=1,b=2,c= 3)
>>> d
{'a': 1, 'c': 3, 'b': 2}

>>> l = d.keys()
>>> l
['a', 'c', 'b']

>>> l.sort()
>>> l
['a', 'b', 'c']

>>> for key in l:
... print d[key]
...
1
2
3
>>>

for key in l:
    value = self._sections[section][key]
    # ...

[William Manley]

Okay, this is what I came up with.

    def write(self, fp):
        """Write an .ini-format representation of the configuration state."""
        if self._defaults:
            fp.write("[%s]\n" % DEFAULTSECT)
            for (key, value) in self._defaults.items():
                fp.write("%s = %s\n" % (key, str(value).replace('\n', '\n\t')))
            fp.write("\n")
        sections = sorted(self._sections)
        for section in sections:
            fp.write("[%s]\n" % section)
            d = self._sections[section].items()
            l = sorted(d.keys())
            for key in l:
                value = self._sections[section][key]
                if key != "__name__":
                    fp.write("%s = %s\n" %
                             (key, str(value).replace('\n', '\n\t')))
            fp.write("\n")

But it generates this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
File "C:\Python25\li b\ConfigParser2 .py", line 372, in write
l = sorted(d.keys() )
AttributeError: 'list' object has no attribute 'keys'

[bartonc]

Okay, this is what I came up with.

    def write(self, fp):
        """Write an .ini-format representation of the configuration state."""
        if self._defaults:
            fp.write("[%s]\n" % DEFAULTSECT)
            for (key, value) in self._defaults.items():
                fp.write("%s = %s\n" % (key, str(value).replace('\n', '\n\t')))
            fp.write("\n")
        sections = sorted(self._sections)
        for section in sections:
            fp.write("[%s]\n" % section)
            d = self._sections[section].items()
            l = sorted(d.keys())
            for key in l:
                value = self._sections[section][key]
                if key != "__name__":
                    fp.write("%s = %s\n" %
                             (key, str(value).replace('\n', '\n\t')))
            fp.write("\n")

But it generates this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
File "C:\Python25\li b\ConfigParser2 .py", line 372, in write
l = sorted(d.keys() )
AttributeError: 'list' object has no attribute 'keys'

I'll just do a little mark up, so you'll understand what you've written:

    def write(self, fp):
        """Write an .ini-format representation of the configuration state."""
        if self._defaults:
            fp.write("[%s]\n" % DEFAULTSECT)
            for (key, value) in self._defaults.items():
                fp.write("%s = %s\n" % (key, str(value).replace('\n', '\n\t')))
            fp.write("\n")
        sections = sorted(self._sections)
        for section in sections:
            fp.write("[%s]\n" % section)
            # dict.items returns a list of (key, value) tuples
            ### d = self._sections[section].items()
            # if you want you can copy the section
            d = self._sections[section]
            # instead of items(), we're using keys() and d[key] for the pair
            l = sorted(d.keys())
            for key in l:
                # then use the copy here too
                value = d[key]
                #### value = self._sections[section][key]
                if key != "__name__":
                    fp.write("%s = %s\n" %
                             (key, str(value).replace('\n', '\n\t')))
            fp.write("\n")

Looks great otherwise.

[bartonc]

I'll just do a little mark up, so you'll understand what you've written:

    def write(self, fp):
        """Write an .ini-format representation of the configuration state."""
        if self._defaults:
            fp.write("[%s]\n" % DEFAULTSECT)
            for (key, value) in self._defaults.items():
                fp.write("%s = %s\n" % (key, str(value).replace('\n', '\n\t')))
            fp.write("\n")
        sections = sorted(self._sections)
        for section in sections:
            fp.write("[%s]\n" % section)
            # dict.items returns a list of (key, value) tuples
            ### d = self._sections[section].items()
            # if you want you can copy the section
            d = self._sections[section]
            # instead of items(), we're using keys() and d[key] for the pair
            l = sorted(d.keys())
            for key in l:
                # then use the copy here too
                value = d[key]
                #### value = self._sections[section][key]
                if key != "__name__":
                    fp.write("%s = %s\n" %
                             (key, str(value).replace('\n', '\n\t')))
            fp.write("\n")

Looks great otherwise.

Looking at it, the list returned by items() may actually be sortable: you could try

    def write(self, fp):
        """Write an .ini-format representation of the configuration state."""
        if self._defaults:
            fp.write("[%s]\n" % DEFAULTSECT)
            for (key, value) in self._defaults.items():
                fp.write("%s = %s\n" % (key, str(value).replace('\n', '\n\t')))
            fp.write("\n")
        sections = sorted(self._sections)
        for section in sections:
            fp.write("[%s]\n" % section)
            # dict.items returns a list of (key, value) tuples
            sectList = self._sections[section].items()
            sectList.sort()
            # or your sorted() trick (which is what I was trying to think of earlier)
            for key, value in sectList:
                if key != "__name__":
                    fp.write("%s = %s\n" %
                             (key, str(value).replace('\n', '\n\t')))
            fp.write("\n")

[William Manley]

Thanks for that, Works great.

[bartonc]

Thanks for that, Works great.

You are quite welcome. Any time, really.