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<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Verdana><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
10.0pt'>I trying to process a file that was originally created on an AS/400 as
a spooled report. The file has been converted to ASCII before sending to me by
e-mail. The original report is in Arabic script and so any Arabic script has
been mapped to</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Verdana><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
10.0pt'>I can’t read the whole file in unless I chop out all the (formerly)
Arabic characters as read(), readline() or readlines() seems to think its done
too early. The problem appears to be that the conversion has produced a byte with
hex value 1a and Python is treating this as an end-of-file marker. This I’ve
worked this out by using a Hex Editor and looking at the character after where
the read operation stops. The offending character the square (unprintable)
character in the file snippet below.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Verdana><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
10.0pt'>Start file snippet >></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Verdana><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
10.0pt'>MK 2005/01/10 البنك العربي(ش .م.ع) الميزانية الموحدة - تقريـر
الميزانية الشهــرية كما هي في</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Verdana><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
10.0pt'> 01 : فروع دولة امارات
========================================= الصـفحة
</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Verdana><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
10.0pt'><< End file snippet</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Verdana><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
10.0pt'>Is there a way I can pre-process this file with Python and chop out the
characters ( the 1a) I don’t want?</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Verdana><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Verdana><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
10.0pt'>If I do this:</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Verdana><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
10.0pt'>import string</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Verdana><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
10.0pt'>report =
open('d:\\Software\\PythonScripts\\ear11050110.txt').readlines()
</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Verdana><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
10.0pt'>report is:</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Verdana><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
10.0pt'>>>> report</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Verdana><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
10.0pt'>['MK 2005/01/10 \xc7\xe1\xc8\xe4\xdf \xc7\xe1\xda\xd1\xc8\xed(\xd4
.\xe3.\xda) \xc7\xe1\xe3\xed\xd2\xc7\xe4\xed\xc9
\xc7\xe1\xe3\xe6\xcd\xcf\xc9 - \xca\xde\xd1\xed\xdc\xd1
\xc7\xe1\xe3\xed\xd2\xc7\xe4\xed\xc9 \xc7\xe1\xd4\xe5\xdc\xdc\xd1\xed\xc9 \xdf\xe3\xc7
\xe5\xed \xdd\xed\n', ' 01 : \xdd\xd1\xe6\xda \xcf\xe6\xe1\xc9
\xc7']</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Verdana><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Verdana><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
10.0pt'>Which is everything up to the hex 1a.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Verdana><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Verdana><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
10.0pt'>Thanks for any prompting whatsoever.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Verdana><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Verdana><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
10.0pt'>Nick.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Verdana><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
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