Unix fold command in python

[Kannan Vijayan]

diabolik at uku.co.uk (dean) wrote in message news:<70efe2ee.0406140252.2c7b0989 at posting.google.com>...
> Hello Group:
> 
> Hopefully someone can answer my question. 
> 
> I have a unix shell command that I would like to emulate in python.
> The command is FOLD. I am scanning a file that contains a stream of
> data with a record size of 242 bytes but no record delimiters. There
> are multiple fields in each record that can be mapped according to
> their position:
> 
> example
> 
> field1 byte 0-4 
> field2 byte 5-8
> ...
> ...
> ...
> fieldn byte 238-242
> 
> 
> How do I make python read a record in and report the contents of a
> particular field (and may be carry out an operations with that field).
> 
> Much appreciated
> 
> regards
> dean

Is the data in some packed binary format?  It seems from your
description that this is the case.  I would consider looking at the
struct module.  Read the docs on it to find out specifics of usage.

-kannan