Python help for a C++ programmer

[Tim Chase]

> I want something like (C++ code):
> 
>  struct Response
>  {
>    std::string name;
>    int age;
>    int iData[ 10 ];
>    std::string sData;
>  };
> 
>  // Prototype
>  void Process( const std::vector<Response>& );
> 
>  int main()
>  {
>    std::vector<Response> responses;
> 
>    while( /* not end of file */ )
>    {
>      Response r;
> 
>      // Fill struct from file
>      r.name = /* get the data from the file */;
>      r.age = /* ... */;
>      r.iData[0] = /* ... */;
>      // ...
>      r.sData = /* ... */;
>      responses.push_back( r );
>    }
> 
>     // Do some processing on the responses
>     Process( responses );
>  }
> 
> What is the preferred way to do this sort of thing in Python?

Without knowing more about the details involved with parsing the 
file, here's a first-pass whack at it:

   class Response(object):
     def __init__(self, name, age, iData, sData):
       self.name = name
       self.age = age
       self.iData = iData
       self.sData = sData

     def __repr__(self):
       return '%s (%s)' % self.name

   def parse_response_from_line(line):
     name, age, iData, sData = line.rstrip('\n').split('\t')
     return Response(name, age, iData, sData)

   def process(response):
     print 'Processing %r' % response

   responses = [parse_response_from_line(line)
     for line in file('input.txt')]

   for response in responses:
     process(response)


That last pair might be condensed to just

   for line in file('input.txt'):
     process(parse_response_from_line(line))

Things get a bit hairier if your input is multi-line.  You might 
have to do something like

   def getline(fp):
     return fp.readline().rstrip('\n')
   def response_generator(fp):
     name = None
     while name != '':
       name = getline(fp)
       age = getline(fp)
       iData = getline(fp)
       sData = getline(fp)
       if name and age and iData and sData:
         yield Response(name, age, iData, sData)

   fp = file('input.txt')
   for response in response_generator(fp):
     process(response)

which you can modify accordingly.

-tkc