On Jun 9, 7:55 am, Jeremy C B Nicoll <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Neil Cerutti <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On 2007-06-08, Jeremy C B Nicoll <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Neil Cerutti <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >> Luckily, the output format has not changed yet, so issues with > > >> maintaining the above haven't arisen. > > > > The problem surely is that when you want to change the format > > > you have to do so in all files (and what about the backups > > > then?) and all programs simultaneously. > > > I don't have control of the format, unfortunately. It's an import > > file format for a commercial database application. > > You're saying your program merely has to read data files created by that > database app? It's not that you have a whole suite of programs that create > and read these files, nor that you have years worth of old files that would > need their format converted if the programs were changed? > > > It is not actually *hard* to do this with ad-hoc code, but then > > the program is indecipherable without a hardcopy of the spec in > > hand. And also, as you say, if the spec ever does change, the > > hand-written batch of ljust, rjust and slice will be somewhat of > > a pain to reconfigure. > > You could presumably define a list (of some sort, might be the wrong > terminology) that defines the 'name', type, length, justification and > padding of each field, and then make the explicit code you showed loop > through that list and do what's needed field by field. > > There's a risk that abstracting the definitions will make the code less > clear to anyone else; at least it's clear what the current stuff does. > > > But biggest weakness, to me, is that the specification is not in > > the code, or read and used by the code, and I think it should be. > > It'd be better if you could read the data layout spec from some file > produced by the database system. No chance perhaps of having the dat files > include some sort of dummy first record that contains the necessary info in > a form that you could interpret?
The OP is *WRITING* not reading. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
