Python tab creation

Question

Alright, i am new to python, and simple tab creation in this language somewhat bewilders me. I am trying to get a tabbed output like such:

:0.1
  A:0.1
  :0.9
    H:2.2
    I:3.0
    B:0.2
  :0.5
    C:0.3
    D:0.4

It is the name of a node, a colon,':', and its corresponding distance, the nodes with no name are designated by 'None' and that is because they represent only a distance to another variable. This is a tree design, so the tabs and indentations can vary. I gather this information from a

self.name

representing the name variable, and a

self.distance

representing the distance

An unindented output of the information looks like the following:

A : 0.1
H : 2.2
I : 3.0
B : 0.2
None : 0.9
C : 0.3
D : 0.4
None : 0.5
None : 0.1

There are supposed to be 3 levels of indentations,

the root, ':0.1',

its 3 children of 'A:0.1'; ':0.9'; ':0.5',

and ':0.9' and ':0.5's children, H,I,B,C and D

I apologize if this is not enough information, i am just unsure how to create a basic tabbed output like the one i've shown above.

Thanks!

EDIT: received my answer Thank You!

If you're using recursion to traverse the data structure, then you can easily pass a depth argument in your function and prepend something like "\t" * depth to your output. — Joel Cornett
– Joel Cornett, Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 20:35
ahh, and the depth varies accordingly with my code, thank you, i did not know of this ability — Sean
– Sean, Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 20:39
@Sean, you should mention the person who gave you the answer and ask them to post the comment as an answer so you can mark it as accepted! — Wayne Werner
– Wayne Werner, Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 20:43

Joel Cornett · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-09 21:11:52Z

4

Let's say you have a tree-like data structure. I'm going to use a nested dict in this example for simplicity:

data = {
    "A": {"value": 0.2, "children": {
            "D": {"value": 0.3, "children": {}},
            "E": {"value": 0.4, "children": {
                    "H": {"value": 0.5, "children": {}},
                    "I": {"value": 0.6, "children": {}}
                }
            }
        }
    },
    "B": {"value": 0.7, "children": {
            "C": {"value": 0.8, "children": {}},
            "D": {"value": 0.9, "children": {}}
        }
    }
}

You could traverse and print it using the following recursive function:

from operator import itemgetter

def display(tree, depth=0):
    prepend = "\t" * depth
    for key, val in sorted(tree.items()):
        print "{0}{1}: {2}".format(prepend, key, val['value'])
        if val['children']:
            display(val['children'], depth + 1)

Which displays the following output:

>>> display(data)
A: 0.2
    D: 0.3
    E: 0.4
        H: 0.5
        I: 0.6
B: 0.7
    C: 0.8
    D: 0.9
>>>

edited Jul 9, 2012 at 21:11

answered Jul 9, 2012 at 21:04

Joel Cornett

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1 Comment

DSM Over a year ago

When possible -- as it is here -- I prefer to iterate over the sorted keys (or key, val pairs). Not because dictionaries are somehow sorted, just because it makes the output reproducible and therefore easier to work with.

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