how to avoid leading white spaces

[Neil Cerutti]

On 2011-06-06, Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 6, 2011 at 10:08 AM, Neil Cerutti <neilc at norwich.edu> wrote:
>> import re
>>
>> print("re solution")
>> with open("data.txt") as f:
>> ? ?for line in f:
>> ? ? ? ?fixed = re.sub(r"(TABLE='\S+)\s+'", r"\1'", line)
>> ? ? ? ?print(fixed, end='')
>>
>> print("non-re solution")
>> with open("data.txt") as f:
>> ? ?for line in f:
>> ? ? ? ?i = line.find("TABLE='")
>> ? ? ? ?if i != -1:
>> ? ? ? ? ? ?begin = line.index("'", i) + 1
>> ? ? ? ? ? ?end = line.index("'", begin)
>> ? ? ? ? ? ?field = line[begin: end].rstrip()
>> ? ? ? ? ? ?print(line[:i] + line[i:begin] + field + line[end:], end='')
>> ? ? ? ?else:
>> ? ? ? ? ? ?print(line, end='')
>
> print("non-re solution")
> with open("data.txt") as f:
>     for line in f:
>         try:
>             start = line.index("TABLE='") + 7

I wrestled with using addition like that, and decided against it.
The 7 is a magic number and repeats/hides information. I wanted
something like:

   prefix = "TABLE='"
   start = line.index(prefix) + len(prefix)

But decided I searching for the opening ' was a bit better.

-- 
Neil Cerutti