"Alan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote > I'm looking for a more elegant way to parse sections of text files > that > are bordered by BEGIN/END delimiting phrases, like this: > > some text > BEGIN_INTERESTING_BIT > someline1 > someline3 > END_INTERESTING_BIT > more text > > What I have been doing is clumsy, involving converting to a string > and > slicing out the required section using split('DELIMITER'):
The method I usually use is only slightly less clunky - or maybe just as clunky! I iterate over the lines setting a flag at the start and unsetting it at the end. Pseudo code: amInterested = False for line in textfile: if amInterested and not isEndPattern(line): storeLine(line) amInterested = not isEndPattern(line) if line.find(begin_pattern): amInterested = True Whether thats any better than joining/splitting is debateable. (Obviously you need to write the isEndPattern helper function too) Alan G. _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor