To the list: I have come up with something that's working fine. However, I'm fairly new to Python, so I'd really appreciate any suggestions on how this can be made more Pythonic.
Thanks, Shawn Okay, here's what I have come up with: #! /usr/bin/python import sys import re month ={'JAN':1,'FEB':2,'MAR':3,'APR':4,'MAY':5,'JUN':6,'JUL':7,'AUG':8,'SEP':9,'OCT':10,'NOV':11,'DEC':12} infile=file('TVA-0316','r') outfile=file('tmp.out','w') def formatDatePart(x): "take a number and transform it into a two-character string, zero padded" x = str(x) while len(x) < 2: x = "0" + x return x regex = re.compile(r",\d{2}/[A-Z]{3}/\d{4},") for line in infile: matches = regex.findall(line) for someDate in matches: dayNum = formatDatePart(someDate[1:3]) monthNum = formatDatePart(month[someDate[4:7]]) yearNum = formatDatePart(someDate[8:12]) newDate = ",%s-%s-%s," % (yearNum,monthNum,dayNum) line = line.replace(someDate, newDate) outfile.writelines(line) infile.close outfile.close -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list