Format text file with python script

Question

I have a text file which is formatted with tabs everywhere. Here is what the text file looks like now:

        "item1", 
        "item2", 
        "item3", 
        "item4", 
        "item5", 
        "item6", 
        "item7", 
        "item8",
        ....

In fact, the text file should look like this:

"item1", "item2", "item3", "item4", "item5", "item6", "item7", "item8", ....

So, I'm guessing there are extra tabs \t everywhere in the original file.

Is it possible to reformat this list somehow with (let's say) a Python script? How would one do this?

Skycc · Accepted Answer · 2016-12-06 03:38:40Z

1

reading the file, use str.strip to strip of the line and write to new file at the same time.

strip will strip of tab or space or newline from both left and right side of the line

with open('input.txt', 'r') as f, open('output.txt', 'w') as fo:
    for line in f:
        fo.write(line.strip())
        # fo.write(line.strip() + '\n') # use this if wanna retain new line

answered Dec 6, 2016 at 3:38

Skycc

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DYZ · Accepted Answer · 2016-12-06 01:42:37Z

1

If the file is not ridiculously large, read it as a string, remove tabs from the string, and write it back:

with open(file_name) as infile:
  replaced = infile.read().replace("\t","")
with open(another_file, "w") as outfile:
  outfile.write(replaced)

If the file is large, read and write it line by line with .readline() and .write() (assuming it has line breaks). If it has no line breaks, read and write it in a loop N characters at a time with .read(N) and .write(). In both cases, replace all tabs with empty strings before writing.

answered Dec 6, 2016 at 1:42

DYZ

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1 Comment

Aditya J. Over a year ago

Do you want to replace the newlines as well?

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