Replace Pattern

[Sorin Marti]

Hello all,

I am quite new to python and want to do the following:

- open a file (done)
- read each line (done)
- search a pattern in the file and replace it
- write the new file

I want to replace the date. example:
INSERT INTO organization VALUES ('Brussels','Brabant','23 10 1954');

should be:
INSERT INTO organization VALUES ('Brussels','Brabant','1954-10-24');

What i've done:

import os,sys
try:
fi = open('test.sql', 'r')
while fi.readline():
line = fi.readline();

except IOError:
print 'Can\'t open file for reading.'
sys.exit(0)

Thanks for any help.

[Peter Otten]

Sorin Marti wrote:

Hello all,

I am quite new to python and want to do the following:

- open a file (done)
- read each line (done)
- search a pattern in the file and replace it
- write the new file

I want to replace the date. example:
INSERT INTO organization VALUES ('Brussels','Brabant','23 10 1954');

should be:
INSERT INTO organization VALUES ('Brussels','Brabant','1954-10-24');

I'm assuming the 24 is a typo, and that you want to change the date format
from 'DD MM YYYY' to 'YYYY-MM-DD'. Otherwise use

line.replace("23 10 1954", "1954-10-24")

There must be simpler ways, but this is what I did:

import re

r = re.compile(r"\'(\d\d) (\d\d) (\d\d\d\d)'")

def adjustDate(m):
return "'%s-%s-%s'" % (m.group(3), m.group(2), m.group(1))

infile = file("in.sql")
outfile = file("out.sql", "w")
for line in infile:
outfile.write(r.sub(adjustDate, line))

The type of search pattern used is called regular expression, and if you
want to understand them, A. M. Kuchling has written a nice Howto for Python
users.
What i've done:

import os,sys
try:
fi = open('test.sql', 'r')
while fi.readline():
line = fi.readline();

except IOError:
print 'Can\'t open file for reading.'
That's the most probable error, but you cannot be sure. In those rare cases
when a problem occurs in the while loop, you are misleading the user -
which could well be yourself :-)
While it's good to start with proper error handling as early as possible, in
the case of a small conversion script, a traceback printed by an uncaught
exception could even be more helpful.
sys.exit(0)

Why would you want to exit your script with 0 (indicating success) if and
error occured?
Peter

[Christopher Koppler]

ma*@semafor.ch (Sorin Marti) wrote in message news:<6f**************************@posting.google. com>...

Hello all,

I am quite new to python and want to do the following:

- open a file (done)
- read each line (done)
- search a pattern in the file and replace it
- write the new file

I want to replace the date. example:
INSERT INTO organization VALUES ('Brussels','Brabant','23 10 1954');

should be:
INSERT INTO organization VALUES ('Brussels','Brabant','1954-10-24');

What i've done:

import os,sys
try:
fi = open('test.sql', 'r')
while fi.readline():
line = fi.readline();

except IOError:
print 'Can\'t open file for reading.'
sys.exit(0)

Thanks for any help.

how 'bout this:

import re

pattern = r"(\d\d) (\d\d) (\d\d\d\d)"
replacement = r"\3-\2-\1"

try:
infile = file('test.sql', 'r')
outfile = file('new.sql', 'w')
except IOError:
print "Can't open file."
else:
for line in infile:
modified = re.sub(pattern, replacement, line)
outfile.write(modified)
infile.close()
outfile.close()
--
Christopher