N00b question: matching stuff with variables.

[Stephen Hansen]

On 6/29/10 2:51 AM, Sion Arrowsmith wrote:
> Stephen Hansen<me+list/python at ixokai.io>  wrote:
>> On 6/28/10 10:29 AM, Ken D'Ambrosio wrote:
>>> for line in file:
>>>      match = re.search((seek)",(.*),(.*)", line) # Stuck here
>> [ ... ]
>>      name, foo, bar = line.split(",")
>>      if seek in name:
>>          # do something with foo and bar
>>
>> That'll return True if the word 'seek' appears in the first field of
>> what appears to be the comma-delimited line.
>
> If the file input is comma-delimited, then the OP might very well
> want a look at the csv module. Something like:
>
> for line in reader(file):
>      if line[0] == seek:
>          # first field matches, do something with line[-1] and line[-2]
>          # -- I'm not quite sure what the semantics of a pair of greedy
>          # (.*)s would be
>

True: but I've personally never seent he point of the csv module unless 
we're talking about a more complicated csv format, such as one with 
quoting in fields. I don't know if that's what the OP is working with, 
but good point: csv might be a good approach if this is more complicated 
format then just a line with a couple commas.

-- 

    ... Stephen Hansen
    ... Also: Ixokai
    ... Mail: me+list/python (AT) ixokai (DOT) io
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