convert non-delimited to delimited

[Mark Elston]

* RyanL wrote (on 8/27/2007 10:59 AM):
> I'm a newbie!  I have a non-delimited data file that I'd like to
> convert to delimited.
> 
> Example...
> Line in non-delimited file:
> 0139725635999992000010100534+42050-102800FM-15+1198KAIA
> 
> Should be:
> 0139,725635,99999,2000,01,01,00,53,4,+42050,-102800,FM-15,+1198,KAIA
> 
> What is the best way to go about this?  I've looked all over for
> examples, help, suggestions, but have not found much.  CSV module
> doesn't seem to do exactly what I want.  Maybe I'm just missing
> something or not using the correct terminology in my searches.  Any
> assistance is greatly appreaciated!  Using Python 2.4
> 

Since you have to know, a priori, how to break the input string I
assume that these fields are of fixed length.  You can use the following
to do what you want:

 >>> a="0139725635999992000010100534+42050-102800FM-15+1198KAIA"
 >>> print "%s,%s,%s,%s,%s,%s,%s,%s,%s,%s,%s,%s,%s,%s" %
     (a[0:4],a[4:10],a[10:15],a[15:19],a[19:21],a[21:23],a[23:25],
      a[25:27],a[27],a[28:34],a[34:41],a[41:46],a[46:51],a[51:])

which results in the following output:

0139,725635,99999,2000,01,01,00,53,4,+42050,-102800,FM-15,+1198,KAIA

Mark