📅 2023-03-23 — Session: Developed Python scripts for file parsing and manipulation

🕒 21:45–22:20
🏷️ Labels: Python, File Handling, JSON, Regex, Data Processing
📂 Project: Dev
⭐ Priority: MEDIUM

Session Goal

The primary objective of this session was to develop and refine Python scripts for various file parsing and manipulation tasks.

Key Activities

  • Troubleshooting Line Removal: Debugged a Python function to remove specific lines from a file, incorporating print statements for better traceability.
  • Extracting Lines Between Strings: Implemented a function to extract lines between specified start and end strings in a file, with error handling for missing strings.
  • Parsing Codebook Information: Developed a script using regular expressions to parse codebook files and convert the data into JSON format.
  • Modifying Regular Expressions: Adjusted regex patterns to better match specific formats in codebook files, exploring alternative string manipulation techniques.
  • Text File to JSON Conversion: Created a Python script to parse text files and convert extracted data into structured JSON formats.
  • Removing Special Characters: Utilized the replace() method to remove special characters from text files, demonstrated with the removal of Form Feed characters.
  • Overwriting File Content: Provided a code example to overwrite file content post-special character removal.
  • Regex Pattern Modification: Modified regex patterns to filter file lines, retaining those starting with a digit followed by an equal sign.
  • Field Extraction to JSON: Scripted a method to extract fields from text files and output them as JSON using regex for structured parsing.

Achievements

  • Successfully developed multiple Python scripts for file parsing and manipulation, enhancing data processing capabilities.
  • Improved understanding and application of regular expressions for data extraction and transformation.

Pending Tasks

  • Further optimization of regex patterns for more complex file formats.
  • Integration of these scripts into larger data processing workflows.