searching through a string and pulling characters

[Alexnb]

Okay, well the point of this program is to steal from the OS X built-in
dictionary. While most of the files are hidden this one is not. 
The "()" You saw actually looks like this: ([I][/I]) only the []'s are <'s
and >'s but the forum doesn't take kindly to html.

What you saw was exactly how it will always be (by that I am talking about
the A 2 A 3 thing)

The number is based on the word(s) they type into my program, and then it
fetches the number that word is in the list of words and then will search
the definitions document and go to the nth def. It probably won't work, but
that is the Idea.

Also, on a side-note, does anyone know a very simple dictionary site, that
isn't dictionary.com or yourdictionary.com. Or, a free dictionary that I can
download to have an offline reference?

John Machin wrote:
> 
> On Aug 19, 6:40 am, Alexnb <alexnbr... at gmail.com> wrote:
>> This is similar to my last post,
> 
> Oh, goodie goodie goodie, I love guessing games!
> 
>> but a little different. Here is what I would
>> like to do.
>>
>> Lets say I have a text file. The contents look like this, only there is A
>> LOT of the same thing.
>>
>> () A registry mark given by underwriters (as at Lloyd's) to ships in
>> first-class condition. Inferior grades are indicated by A 2 and A 3.
>> () The first three letters of the alphabet, used for the whole alphabet.
>> () In church or chapel style; -- said of compositions sung in the old
>> church
>> style, without instrumental accompaniment; as, a mass a capella, i. e., a
>> mass purely vocal.
>> () Astride; with a part on each side; -- used specif. in designating the
>> position of an army with the wings separated by some line of demarcation,
>> as
>> a river or road.
> 
> This looks like the "values" part of an abbreviation/acronym
> dictionary ... what has happened to the "keys" part (A1, ABC, AC, ?
> astride?, ...)
> 
> Does "()" appear always at the start of a line (perhaps preceded by
> some whitespace), or can it appear in the middle of a line?
> 
> Are you sure about "A 2" and "A 3"? I would have expected "A2" and
> "A3". In other words, is the above an exact copy of some input or have
> you re-typed it?
> 
> "()" is a strange way of delimiting things ...
> 
> OK, here's my guess: You have acquired a database with two tables.
> Table K maps e.g. "ABC" to 2. Table V maps 2 to "The first three
> letters of the alphabet, used for the whole alphabet." You have used
> some utility or done "select '() ' + column2 from V.
> 
>>
>> Now, I am talking 1000's of these. I need to do something like this. I
>> will
>> have a number, and what I want to do is go through this text file, just
>> like
>> the example. The trick is this, those "()'s" are what I need to match, so
>> if
>> the number is 245 I need to find the 245th () and then get the all the
>> text
>> from after it until the next (). If you have an idea about the best way
>> to
>> do this I would love your help.
> 
> The best way to do this is to write a small simple Python script. I
> suggest that you try this, and if you have difficulties, post your
> attempt here together with a lucid description of the perceived
> problem.
> 
> However searching through a large file (how many Mb?) looking for the
> nth occurrence of "()" doesn't sound like a good idea after about the
> 10th time you do it. Perhaps it might be worth the extra effort to
> process the text file once and insert the results in a (say) SQLite
> data base so that later you can do "select column2 from V where
> column1 = 245".
> 
> A really silly question: You say "I will have a number" (e.g. 245);
> what is the source or provenance of this ordinal? A random number
> generator? Inscription on a ticket passed through a wicket? "select
> column2 from K where column1 = 'A1'"? IOW, perhaps you may need to
> consider the larger problem.
> 
> Cheers,
> John
> --
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
> 
> 

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