Re: What language to manipulate text files

ross wrote: 
I want to do some tricky text file manipulation on many files, but have
only a little programming knowledge.

What are the ideal languages for the following examples?

1. Starting from a certain folder, look in the subfolders for all
filenames matching *FOOD*.txt Any files matching in each folder should
be copied to a new subfolder within the current folder called EATING
with a new name of *FOOD*COPY.txt


This should get you started:

import errno
from path import path # http://www.jorendorff.com/articles/python/path/

dst_dirpath = path("EATING")

# create dst_dirpath
try:
    dst_dirpath.makedirs() # make destination directory and its parents
except OSError, err:       # error!
    if err.errno = errno.EEXIST: # might just be that it already exists
        if not dst_dirpath.isdir(): # and it's a directory
            raise          # if not, raise an exception

for filepath in path(".").walkfiles("*FOOD*.txt"):
    infile = file(filepath)
    outfile = file(dst_dirpath.joinpath(filepath.namebase+"_COPY.txt"))

    ...do processing here...

My first objective is to process the files as described.
My second objective is to learn the best language for this sort of text
manipulation. The language should run on Windows 98, XP and Linux.

Would Python be best, or would a macro-scripting thing like AutoHotKey
work?


Personally, I'd use Python, but what do you expect when you ask here?
--
Michael Hoffman
.

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