using split() with paragraphs and assigning values to variables

Question

I have a.txt file of the following but each value starting on the next line

229
flowers
7
2.99
456
bows
3
19.99

I originally coded for them as if they were separated by commas instead of starting on the next line with this code:

  inventory_dict = {}
    #open inventory
    inventory_data = open(INVENTORY_FILE,'r')
    #read
    for line in inventory_data:
        values = line.split(',') #split items using commas
       
        item_id = values[0] 
        name = values[1]                #<-- storing the info in separate variables
        quantity = int(values[2])
        price = float(values[3])
        
        inventory_item = inventory.Inventory(item_id,name,quantity,price)#create an instance
        inventory_dict[item_id] = inventory_item

` How do i do the same thing, but using the fact that each value starts on a different line as the separator?

I've tried using \n as a separator and that hasn't worked either.

Answer 1

You need to consume four lines at a time from the file, so a plain for line in file loop won't work.

Try this:

# read all the lines in the file
inventory = open(INVENTORY_FILE,'r').readlines()

# keep looping if there are at least four more lines remaining
while len(inventory) >= 4:
    # .pop(0) removes the first item in the list
    item_id = inventory.pop(0) 
    name = inventory.pop(0)
    quantity = int(inventory.pop(0))
    price = float(inventory.pop(0))

    # now assign to dict...