Amaninder Singh wrote: > I am fairly new to the language and programing. I am trying to solve a > problem in a text file. Where names are something like in this manner > [**Name2 (NI) 98**] > > [**Last Name (STitle) 97**] > [**First Name4 (NamePattern1) 93**] > [**Last Name (NamePattern1) 94**] > ([**Name (NI) 95**]) > [**Last Name (un) 96**] > I am trying to change these with random names.
First thing is to read the text file. It looks to me that these are records that consist of multiple lines. Depending on the exact layout you could read and store them in a plain list or maybe a dictionary. As part of this sub- task, output each record, too, so you can manually verify that its fields are correct. with open(filename) as f: lines = list(f) print lines This should get you started, it will read the file into a list for further handling. You might need "codecs.open" instead if you have special requirements concerning the encoding. Then, in a second step, you just go through your list of records and modify them however you want. If there are restrictions to the overall form of a record or its contents, be sure to validate the record both after reading and after modification. In a third step, you just write the records to an output file, but by then this will be an easy task for you. Of course, reading back the output and validating it is a good idea. Actually, you can also skip the second step for now and just write back the data you previously read without modification. If you have any problems with these, be more specific with what you want, what you have already and where your problems are. In particular, don't ask for code, as that looks as if you were trying to get someone else to do your homework for you without making an effort yourself. Good luck! Uli -- Domino Laser GmbH Geschäftsführer: Thorsten Föcking, Amtsgericht Hamburg HR B62 932 -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list