Python format output

Question

I am a python novice. I have a bunch of sets which are included in the list 'allsets'. In each set, I have multiple string elements. I need to print all of my sets in a text file, however, I would like to find a way to separate each element with a '|' and print the name of the set at the beginning. E.g.:

s1= [string1, string2...]
s2= [string3, string4...]
allsets= [s1,s2,s3...]

My ideal output in a text file should be:

s1|string1|string2
s2|string3|string4

This is the code I've written so far but it returns only a single (wrong) line:

for s in allsets:
   for item in s:
     file_out.write("%s" % item)

Any help? Thanks!

unwind · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-04 12:53:06Z

1

Those are not "sets", in Python, they're just lists.

The names of the variables (s1 and so on) are not easily available programmatically, since Python variables are ... weird. Note that you can have the same object given multiple names, so it's not obvious that there is a single name.

You can go around this by using a dictionary:

allsets = { "s1": s1, "s2": s2, ...}

for k in allsets.keys():
  file_out.write("%s|%s" % (k, "|".join(allsets[k]))

answered Jul 4, 2013 at 12:53

unwind

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John Doe · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-04 12:52:23Z

0

for s in allsets:
   for item in s:
     file_out.write("%s|" % item)
   file_out.write("\n")

\n changes the line.

answered Jul 4, 2013 at 12:52

John Doe

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2 Comments

user2447387 Over a year ago

Thanks! Is it possible to include the name of the set at the beginning of the string?

John Doe Over a year ago

It is, if you can retrieve the name of the set from allsets. Say name_s is the name of the set s, you can add file_out.write("%s|"%name_s) in the outer loop, before the inner loop.

Paco · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-04 12:53:38Z

0

Have a look at the CSV module. IT does everything for you

Here's an example from the documentation

import csv
with open('eggs.csv', 'wb') as csvfile:
    spamwriter = csv.writer(csvfile, delimiter=' ',
                            quotechar='|', quoting=csv.QUOTE_MINIMAL)
    spamwriter.writerow(['Spam'] * 5 + ['Baked Beans'])
    spamwriter.writerow(['Spam', 'Lovely Spam', 'Wonderful Spam'])

answered Jul 4, 2013 at 12:53

Paco

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