CODEWITHSUNDEEP
python
Catalin S.
Catalin S.

Reputation: 47

issues while parsing through a .txt file

Ok, so I am working on a script that parses through a .txt file and based on certain strings that it finds in the file, makes certain recommendations.

Let's say that I want to parse through the parameters.txt file which looks something like:

ztta/roll_memory = 250000
shm = 5000

Now, the code I am using to do this is:

  a = 'ztta/roll_memory = 250000'
  b = 'shm = 5000'
  with open('parameter.txt', 'r') as myfile:
  data = myfile.read()
  if a in data: 
     print("the value of ztta/roll_memory is correct --> PASS")
  else:
     print("the value of ztta/roll memory is incorrect --> FAIL")
  if b in  data:
     print("the value of shm is correct --> PASS")
  else:
     print("the value of shm is incorrect --> FAIL")

The issue here is that if one of the parameters in the .txt file would have a value like:

ztta/roll_memory = 2500 (**instead of 250000**), the if statement would still be triggered.

Thank you

Upvotes: 0

Views: 54

Answers (1)

Daniel R. Livingston
Daniel R. Livingston

Reputation: 1229

Another way of putting if a in data is:

if 'ztta/roll_memory = 250000' in 'ztta/roll_memory = 250000':

You can see that the substring a in enclosed in the comparative string, regardless of how many zeros trail it.

Another way of putting it:

if 'ab' in 'abc' # True
if 'ab' in 'abd' # True
if 'hello00' in 'hello00000' # True

On an aside, your code is not scalable. You should try reading in the parameters as ints instead of strings. I.e.,

good_values = {'ztta/roll_memory': 250000, 'shm': 5000}
params = {}

with open('parameter.txt','r') as myfile:
    for line in myfile:
        line_array = [x.strip() for x in line.split('=')]
        params[line_array[0]] = int(line_array[-1])

for key in params:
    if params[key] == good_values[key]:
        print("the value of {0} is correct --> PASS".format(key))
    else:
        print("the value of {0} is incorrect --> FAIL".format(key))

Upvotes: 1

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