[Tutor] Using Python and Regex

[Alex Kleider]

On 2014-08-10 04:30, Bill wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm relatively new to Python and I'm trying to write a script to
> iterate through a series of text files in folder searching for some
> specific text and write it to a CSV.
> 
> I plan to use Regex to match the text and I have already identified
> the Regex to do this. I've also got as far as creating a CSV using
> python but, being new to this, I'm looking for some pointers on how to
> traverse through the folder and open each file in turn to check the
> content for matches using Regex.
> 
> Any advice would be gratefully received.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Bill

I suggest you begin with os.path.walk()
https://docs.python.org/2/library/os.path.html

To traverse files line by line:
     for f_name in mylistoffiles:
         try:
             f = open(f_name, 'r', encoding='utf-8')
         except IOError as err_report:
             # you might want to keep track of failures
             continue
         for line in f:
             # apply your regex code and do whatever