使用 python 从非常大的文本文件中提取数据并导出为有组织的表格形式

Question

I'm taking my first programming class and I'm a little stuck on this. I know how to read lines and export data on a more simple level but I haven't done something in a less straightforward way like I have to with this...

I need a bit of help getting this going.

So I'm supposed to read and export data from this

https://pastebin.com/ZM8EPu0p

and export it into a more readable format like this- example output is below

https://imgur.com/F0rlK2c

So far this is the code I have created in order to read and split this text into more usable chunks.

def readFile(filename):
        f = open(filename, "r") #opens the file in read mode
        mylist = f.read().splitlines() #puts the file into an array
        newlist= [word for line in mylist for word in line.split()] #line comprehension
        print(newlist) #print list
        
        f.close()
        return mylist
       
readFile("exactfilepath")

However, I am unsure of how to extract the data I need (defendant name, file number, courtroom, attorney, bond, charge, etc) and organize it into a more tabular format as shown in the example output.

Sorry for the newbie question, I'm in the very early stages of learning python.

Answer 1

From what I can tell in the screenshot you posted, the entries start with a 4-digit number. While on this entry, write into a Python dict. When you encounter a new empty line, stop writing into the dict and put the dict's values into a csv row.

So I think you should take a different approach. I've written some code which may help, but you'll still need to fill in some parts yourself (the TODO).

It's also good practice to use the with keyword when reading from a file. It avoids having to use file.close() as long as you put all code that uses the file into an indentation. You can see it in action below. Also, you should use 4 spaces, not 8, for each indentation level in Python.

def readFile(filename):
    csv_rows = []  # here we'll put each line after processing it
    with open(filename, 'r') as file:
        for original_line in file:
            if original_line[:4].isnumeric():  # if first 4 characters are digits
                entry={}  # we initialize an empty dictionary
            elif original_line.isspace() and entry:  #if we're on an empty line and the entry dict is not empty
                csv_rows.append(",".join(entry.values())) # write entry dict as comma-separated value and append it to csv_rows
                entry={}
            else:
                # read attributes into dict
                pairs =  # TODO: split data on each row into pairs of form "key: value"
                dict.update({pair.split(":")[0]:pair.split(":")[1] for pair in pairs}
    return csv_rows
       
readFile("exactfilepath")