I need to parse a log file using python and I need some advice/wisdom on the best way to go about it:
The log file entries will consist of something like this: ID=8688 IID=98889998 execute begin - 01.21.2007 status enabled locked working.lock status running status complete ID=9009 IID=87234785 execute wait - 01.21.2007 status wait waiting to lock status wait waiting on ID=8688 and so on... I need to be able to group these entries together, index them by ID and IID, and search the context of each entry and if a certain status if found (such as wait), then be able to return the ID or IID (depending...) of that entry. So I was considering parsing them to this effect: in a dictionary, where the key is a tuple, and the value is a list: {('ID=8688', 'IID=98889998'): ['ID=8688 IID=98889998 execute begin - 01.21.2007 status enabled', 'locked working.lock', 'status running', 'status complete']} I am keeping the full text of each entry in the list so that I can recreate them for display if need be. I am fairly new to python, so could anyone offer any advice here before I get too far and discover a fatal flaw that you might see coming a mile away? would I, with this design, be able to, for example, search each list for "waiting on ID=8688", and when found, be able to associate that value with one of the elements of it's key "ID=9009" ? or is this approached flawed? I'm assuming there is a better way, but I need some advice... I appreciate any thoughts. Thanks. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list