newbie problem

[Manuel Hendel]

I'm totally new to python, I'm right know reading the book "Einführung
in Python" from O'Reilly. I have to solve a problem and want to do it
using python.
I got a text file with the following input:

# KDNR 123456
*                                     * domain   username
# KDNR 234567
info                           password domain   username
info                           password domain   email-address
info                           password domain   email-address
*                              password domain   username

and need to get the following output:

123456|*|*|domain|username
234567|info|password|domain|username
234567|info|password|domain|email-address
234567|info|password|domain|email-address
234567|*|password|domain|username

Can anyone give me a hint where to start and an idea how to solve
this? The file has more than 17000 lines full of this.

Thank you very much in advance,
    Manuel

-- 
I have a higher and greater standard of principle. Washington could not lie. I 
can lie but I won't. 
-Mark Twain, in the Chicago Tribune, 20 Dec 1871