splitting tables

[Scott David Daniels]

robsom wrote:

> ... The 'split' function works pretty well, except when there is an error
> in the original data table. For example if an element is missin in a line,
> like this:
> 
> CGA 1990 08 15 13 16 G500-105 D   524.45 J.. R1 1993 01 29 00 00 900069
> CGA 1990 08 16 01 22          D   508.06 J.. R1 1993 01 27 00 00 900065

A way to stay reasonably fast is to use split when it works:

     lengths = 3,4,2,2,2,8,1,8,3,2,4,2,2,2,2,6
     ...
     result = line.split()
     if len(result) != len(lengths):
         result, pos = [], 0
         for length in lengths:
             next = pos + length + 1
             result.append(line[pos : next].strip())
             pos = next
     ...
-- 
-Scott David Daniels
Scott.Daniels at Acm.Org