adding items from a text file to a list

[toflat at tdl.com]

"Delaney, Timothy" wrote:

> > From: toflatpy2 at oaktown.org [mailto:toflatpy2 at oaktown.org]
> >
> > I have a text file with a list of data items.
> >
> > ex:
> >
> > pickle        (fruit or veggie?)
> > pickled eggs  (just plain strange)
> > seinfeld      (funny show)
> > yada yada     (yada)
> >
> > What I want to do is add each item in the file to a python list. The
> > thing that is eluding me is how to leave out the comments. I need it
> > to scan in the item, skip anything in parenthsis then proceed to the
> > next line.
>
> You will need to read the spec carefully. Does it state that anything on a
> line following an open parenthesis is part of the comment, or is it only
> things within parentheses? These have two different solutions.

Good Point. As it turns out, the comment will start on the same line with an
open parenthesis and will finish with a close parenthesis, but the end of the
comment may not come until the next line. So, anything on a line following an
open parenthesis, up to the close parenthesis, is a comment.

I'll get it sooner or later :)

>
>
> 1. Everything after the start of a comment is part of the comment (or
> guaranteed that there is nothing on a line after a comment).
>
> Find the start of the comment, then discard anything on the line from that
> point on. POssibly trim any excess whitespace from the line.
>
> 2. Only things within the comment delimiters are comments.
>
> Find the start of a comment, then the end of that comment. Add everything
> before the comment to everything behind the comment. Repeat until no
> comments are found in the line. Possibly need to remove excess whitespace.
>
> The implementation is up to you. Probably the simplest option would be to
> use string.find(), followed by slicing the string at the appropriate points.
>
> Tim Delaney