Unicode, lists & strings

[nihilium]

A document contains text and notes below it. Both sections contains unicode. I want to add a disclaimer above the notelist.

import re
f = open('C:/example.txt', 'r') 
source =  f.read()
patt = re.compile(r'(.*)[a-zA-Z\-]+\s?(?<![Error]):[^\[\]\n]*', re.DOTALL) # finding the main text
text= patt.search(source) # returns text containing unicode
patt = re.compile(r'[a-zA-Z\-]+\s?(?<![Error]):[^\[\]\n]*') # finding the notes
notelist = patt.findall(source) # returns a list of notes, containing more unicode
notes = u'\n'.join(str(x) for x in notelist)  # converting the list to a string
outputFile = open('C:/example.txt', 'w')
outputFile.write(u'%s%s\n\n%s' % (text, 'This is a disclaimer above the list of notes',  notes))  # writes the orignal text to the original file with the disclaimer added

The first error here comes in point 8 where the list 'notelist' is converted to a string. The second one appears at point 10 where 'text' contains unicode characters that cannot be decoded.

[jlm699]

import re
f = open('C:/example.txt', 'r') 
source =  f.read()
patt = re.compile(r'(.*)[a-zA-Z\-]+\s?(?<![Error]):[^\[\]\n]*', re.DOTALL) # finding the main text
text= patt.search(source) # returns text containing unicode
patt = re.compile(r'[a-zA-Z\-]+\s?(?<![Error]):[^\[\]\n]*') # finding the notes
notelist = patt.findall(source) # returns a list of notes, containing more unicode
notes = u'\n'.join(str(x) for x in notelist)  # converting the list to a string
outputFile = open('C:/example.txt', 'w')
outputFile.write(u'%s%s\n\n%s' % (text, 'This is a disclaimer above the list of notes',  notes))  # writes the orignal text to the original file with the disclaimer added

The first error here comes in point 8 where the list 'notelist' is converted to a string. The second one appears at point 10 where 'text' contains unicode characters that cannot be decoded.

What are your errors?

On first inspection I'd say add [] around your list comprehension on line 8, ie:

notes = u'\n'.join([str(x) for x in notelist])  # converting the list to a string

[nihilium]

What are your errors?

On first inspection I'd say add [] around your list comprehension on line 8, ie:

notes = u'\n'.join([str(x) for x in notelist])  # converting the list to a string

It turns out my problems do not lie where I thought they did. I'll have to do more research; thanks for the help.