delineating by comma where commas inside quotation marks don't count

[Junior]

I want to open a text file for reading and delineate it by comma. I also
want any data
surrounded by quotation marks that has a comma in it, not to count the
commas inside the
quotation marks

if the file testfile.txt contains the following;

5,Tuesday,"May is a spring month",Father's Day
1,Saturday,"Jun e,July and August",Indepen dance Day
and I write the following program

fname = open('testfile. txt', 'r')
ct=1
while ct != 3:
rd=(fname.readl ine())
filedata=rd.spl it(',')
print "var2=",filedat a[2]
ct +=1

fname.close

filedata[2] will = "May is a spring month"; on the first pass and

filedata[2] will = "June; on the second pass

How do I get filedata[2] to = "June,July and August" on the second pass

and filedata[3] to = Independance Day

[Dan Bishop]

On Oct 24, 8:56 pm, "Junior" <mlon...@verizo n.netwrote:

I want to open a text file for reading and delineate it by comma. I also
want any data
surrounded by quotation marks that has a comma in it, not to count the
commas inside the
quotation marks

Use the csv module.

[equand]

On Oct 25, 3:56 am, "Junior" <mlon...@verizo n.netwrote:

I want to open a text file for reading and delineate it by comma. I also
want any data
surrounded by quotation marks that has a comma in it, not to count the
commas inside the
quotation marks

if the file testfile.txt contains the following;

5,Tuesday,"May is a spring month",Father's Day
1,Saturday,"Jun e,July and August",Indepen dance Day

and I write the following program

fname = open('testfile. txt', 'r')
ct=1
while ct != 3:
rd=(fname.readl ine())
filedata=rd.spl it(',')
print "var2=",filedat a[2]
ct +=1

fname.close

filedata[2] will = "May is a spring month"; on the first pass and

filedata[2] will = "June; on the second pass

How do I get filedata[2] to = "June,July and August" on the second pass

and filedata[3] to = Independance Day

why not using csv?
but u would better put all strings into ""
else u can

r = open('file').re ad().splitlines ()

for i in r:
l1 = i.split(',',2)
l2 = l1.pop().rsplit (',',1)
print l1+l2

[Junior]

"Dan Bishop" <da*****@yahoo. comwrote in message
news:11******** **************@ k35g2000prh.goo glegroups.com.. .

On Oct 24, 8:56 pm, "Junior" <mlon...@verizo n.netwrote:

>I want to open a text file for reading and delineate it by comma. I also
want any data
surrounded by quotation marks that has a comma in it, not to count the
commas inside the
quotation marks

Use the csv module.

Thanks for the help! I used the csv module to write this;

import csv
reader = csv.reader(open ('testfile.txt' , "rb"))
for row in reader:
print "var2= ", row[2]
The reason I didn't use the csv module is because I read this book to learn
Python,

Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner, Second Edition (For the
Absolute Beginner)
by Michael Dawson (Author),

and it did not mention the csv module it just explained how to import
modules. I also read

the tutorial that comes with python but it ends with the History and License
section.

Can you recommend a book that explains the most used modules?