Search for 2 words in a file and print out all the lines between these 2 words

[dann]

I need to read in a file and split it into lines. Then search for a start and an end word and print out all the words in between including the start and end words.

For example: (file)
a
b
foo
c
d
bar
e

output:
foo
c
d
bar

I tried to search on the web but without any luck.
I'm just a beginner, any help is appreciated thanks.

import re

f = open('input, 'r')
lines = f.readlines()
for line in lines:
    #if line.startswith("main"):
    # and endswith("end"):
    print re.split(r"\s|," , line)

[bvdet]

This is how I would approach it:

Create an open file object for reading
Iterate on the file object for line in fileObj:
Strip the white space characters from line
If line starts with the start word, initialize a list to contain the results
Start a try/except block to catch an EOFError, because fileObj.next() will raise the error upon reaching the end of the file
Start a while loop while True:
Use fileObj.next(). strip() to read the next line
If line starts with the end word, append the word to the list and break out of both loops
If line does not start with the end word, append the word to the list and continue

Then you can print the words like this:print "\n".join(resul tsList)

[dann]

Thank you bvdet for the quick reply.
I tried to follow your approach, but i got stuck the second loop (while loop). I get an error when i do try to leave both loops. I am not sure where to use the breaks to leave of the loops. Thanks again for your help

import re

fileObj = open(inputFile, 'r')
#lines = f.readlines()
aList = []
for line in fileObj:
    sLine = line.strip()
    #print lStrip
    if sLine.startswith("start"):
        aList = sLine
        #print aList
        try:
            while True:
                try:
                    fileObj.next().strip()
                    if sLine.startswith("end"):
                        aList.append(sLine)
                        break
        break
                    else:
                        aList.append(sLine)
                except EOFError:
                    print "something went wrong"

[Sean Pedersen]

def search(fname, start, end):
    
    file = (line.strip() for line in open(fname))
    
    line = file.next()
    while line != start: line = file.next()
    yield line
    
    line = file.next()
    while line != end: yield line; line = file.next()
    yield line

for item in search("file.txt", "foo", "bar"):
    print item

[bvdet]

dann,

You are not too far off. Encapsulate the loops in a function and use the return statement. Also, you must make an assignment to sLine in the inner loop.

def main():
    fileObj = open(inputfile, 'r')
    #lines = f.readlines()
    for line in fileObj:
        sLine = line.strip()
        if sLine.startswith("foo"):
            aList = [sLine,]
            try:
                while True:
                    sLine = fileObj.next().strip()
                    if sLine.startswith("bar"):
                        aList.append(sLine)
                        return aList
                    else:
                        aList.append(sLine)
            except EOFError:
                print "something went wrong"

print main()

Here is another way of doing it. The following returns the words in between start and end and was intended to be used on a sentence. It could easily be converted for your application.

from string import punctuation as stuff

def words_between(s, first, second):
    # return the words between first and second words
    words = [word.lower() for word in s.split()]
    # catch error if word not in sentence
    try:
        # strip punctuation for matching
        idx1 = [word.strip(stuff) for word in words].index(first.lower())
        # start search for second word after idx1
        idx2 = [word.strip(stuff) \
                for word in words].index(second.lower(),idx1+1)
        return words[idx1+1:idx2]
    except ValueError, e:
        return "ValueError: %s" % e

sentence = "The small country was ruled by a truculent dictator."
print words_between(sentence, "was", "dictator")

[dann]

bvdet,

Thanks again and to the others who replied.
That's what I need it to do, but after it finds the start word it strips all the lines and I want to keep the file structure as it was. I tried to remove ".strip()" from "sLine = fileObj.next(). strip()", but that didn't work. With my previous code i used readlines().

Another question, after that the alist has stored the values between the start and end words I need to loop through the alist for new start and end words. Is it better to use the current function and add a new inner loop to it or define a new function and loop through the alist?

[Sean Pedersen]

The little generator I posted doesn't modify the file. You tried removing the method .strip from your file iterator, but it didn't do what? It's my understanding readlines buffers the entire file, which is not good for big data.

If you keep the file open, simply seek to offset 0. And if not you'll need to reopen it.

[dwblas]

Is it better to use the current function and add a new inner loop to it or define a new function and loop through the alist?

I definitely prefer passing the list to a separate function for readability but it is personal preference.

but after it finds the start word it strips all the lines and I want to keep the file structure as it was.

You can strip() and not store the results:

## snipped from code posted above
                while True:
                    sLine = fileObj.next()         ## eliminate strip()
                    ## added here but does not alter sLine
                    if sLine.strip().startswith("bar"):
                        aList.append(sLine)
                        return aList
                    else:
                        aList.append(sLine)

[dann]

Thanks everybody with your help my code is doing what it should do.
I am catching all the code between a start and an end point and storing it in a list.

import re

parsing =False
aList = []
mylist = []
bBlock = []

fileObj = open('inputfile', 'r')
for line in fileObj:
    if line.find(".ent") != -1:
        print "Now parsing **************************************"
        line
        parsing = True
    if line.find(".end") != -1:
        print "Stopped parsing **********************************"
        parsing = False

    if parsing:
        instruct = re.split(r"\s|," , line)
        aList.append(instruct)
    else:
        mylist.append(line)

Next thing I am trying to do is to itrate/loop through my list (aList) I have stored earlier, trying to find a word that ends with double point(:) in my list. I tried the following code but I didn't succedeed. The error code I get is this:
File "\Python26\lib\ re.py", line 142, in search
return _compile(patter n, flags).search(s tring)
TypeError: expected string or buffer
Any help is appreciated.

for line in aList: 
    if re.search(":", line):
        bBlock.append(line)

[bvdet]

It could be a problem with this if block:

if parsing:
        instruct = re.split(r"\s|," , line)
        aList.append(instruct)

re.split() will return a list to the identifier instruct. re.search() expects a string, not a list.