Modifying a row in a textfile

[Dave Angel]

Jorgen Grahn wrote:
> On Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:21:59 +0200, Diez B. Roggisch <deets at nospam.web.de> wrote:
>   
>> Olli Virta wrote:
>>
>>     
>>> Hi!
>>>
>>> I got a textfile made out of database records. Is there an easy way to
>>> modify rows in that file in case you have to take away some items here
>>> and there from each rows.
>>>       
>> for line in inf.readlines():
>>     if matches_criteria(line):
>>        line = modify_line(line)
>>     outf.write(line)
>>     
>
> In other words, no. You need to put the results in another file.
>
> /Jorgen
>
>   
If it is important that this ends up in the same file, you can simplify 
the code by using fileinput.input() with the "inplace" paramater.  It 
renames the input file, redirects stdout to a new file with the original 
name, and deletes the renamed file, all at appropriate times.  There are 
a few caveats, so be careful.  The main caveat is to make sure you close 
the file.

DaveA