parsing of structured text

Kushal Kumaran kushal.kumaran+python at gmail.com
Wed Oct 27 23:59:23 EDT 2010


On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 1:33 AM, Robert Fendt
<robert.fendt at googlemail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have to parse a file containing (slightly erroneous) vCal data. The
> format of vCal/iCal is that of a structured ASCII file, not unlike XML
> in a way. A vCal block contains information on a line-by-line basis,
> with the possibility of sub-blocks (for events).
>
> BEGIN:VCALENDAR
> VERSION:1.0
> BEGIN:VEVENT
> ...
> END:VEVENT
> BEGIN:VEVENT
> ...
> END:VEVENT
> END:VCALENDAR
> BEGIN:VCALENDAR
> VERSION:1.0
> ...
> END:VCALENDAR
>
> Were this C++, I would use an iterator approach, with classes for the
> calendar and event blocks respectively, and pass an iterator pointing
> to the current position in the file for deserialisation, getting  a
> new iterator back that points to the position behind the block. That
> way I decide what to do next based on the current line's contents,
> i.e., implement a state machine of some sorts.
>
> While this approach is certainly possible in Python as well, I have
> the nagging feeling that there should be a much cleaner, simpler
> (i.e., "Pythonic") way to deal with such a problem. Ideally, the end
> result would look something like this, however I am a bit at a loss
> right now as to how best to achieve it. Any suggestions?
>

Using code someone else has already written would qualify as pythonic, IMO.

http://pypi.python.org/pypi/vobject

-- 
regards,
kushal



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