Processing text using python

[plahey at alumni.caltech.edu]

Hi,

you have plenty of good responses.  I thought I would add one more:

def data_iter(file_name):
    data = file(file_name)
    while True:
        value = data.read(3)
        if not value:
            break
        yield value
    data.close()

With the above, you can grab the entire data set (3 characters at a
time) like so:

    data_set = [ d for d in data_iter('data') ]

Or iterate over it:

    for d in data_iter('data'):
        # do stuff

Enjoy!