Extract string with bibliographic data from a .txt file into a dictionary in python

Question

i want to code a python function, which extracts certain string elements out of a textfile with bibliographical data. The file contains different lines like that:

shakespeare, william: macbeth. novel, second edition, cambridge, 2005

Each line is been separated by a \\n .

How can i extract these lines into a structure like:

author : shakespeare, william
title : macbeth

usw.

Answer 1

You could do something like this. Every line would have its own dictionary then.

d = {}
s = "shakespeare, william: macbeth. novel, second edition, cambridge, 2005"
data = s.split(".")[0].split(": ")
d["author"] = data[0]
d["title"] = data[1]

print d
#Output
{'title': 'macbeth', 'author': 'shakespeare, william'}