Generating text files (newbie)

[Doran, Harold]

Assume I have a tab-delimited text file called foo.txt organized as
follows:

x11	-0.04	
x22	-0.42	
x33	0.3

My goal is to read in this file and use the information therein to
output a new file that is organized as follows:


x11	IRM=3PL	IPB= -0.04	
x22	IRM=3PL	IPB= -0.42	
x33	IRM=3PL	IPB= 0.3

I am a newbie with python and am trying to put the pieces together. Now,
I know if I had a list, I could do something like:

a = [-0.04, -0.42, 0.3]

>>> for i in a:
	print "IRM = 3PL", "\t", "IPB = ", i

IRM = 3PL 	IPB =  -0.04
IRM = 3PL 	IPB =  -0.42
IRM = 3PL 	IPB =  0.3

And then I could write this to a file. But I am not sure how to I might
tackle this when I read in a text file. 

So far, my basic skills allow for me to accomplish the following

# read in file
params = open('foo.txt', 'r+')

# Write to the file
params.write('Add in some new test\n')

params.close()

Any pointers are appreciated. I'm using python 2.3 on a windows xp
machine.

Thanks.
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