Unix fold command in python

[dean]

Hello Group:

Hopefully someone can answer my question.

I have a unix shell command that I would like to emulate in python.
The command is FOLD. I am scanning a file that contains a stream of
data with a record size of 242 bytes but no record delimiters. There
are multiple fields in each record that can be mapped according to
their position:

example

field1 byte 0-4
field2 byte 5-8
....
....
....
fieldn byte 238-242


How do I make python read a record in and report the contents of a
particular field (and may be carry out an operations with that field).

Much appreciated

regards
dean

 

[Ivan Voras]

Hello Group:

Hopefully someone can answer my question.

I have a unix shell command that I would like to emulate in python.
The command is FOLD. I am scanning a file that contains a stream of
data with a record size of 242 bytes but no record delimiters. There

Have you looked at the 'struct' module?

 

[Kannan Vijayan]

Hello Group:

Hopefully someone can answer my question.

I have a unix shell command that I would like to emulate in python.
The command is FOLD. I am scanning a file that contains a stream of
data with a record size of 242 bytes but no record delimiters. There
are multiple fields in each record that can be mapped according to
their position:

example

field1 byte 0-4
field2 byte 5-8
...
...
...
fieldn byte 238-242


How do I make python read a record in and report the contents of a
particular field (and may be carry out an operations with that field).

Much appreciated

regards
dean

Is the data in some packed binary format? It seems from your
description that this is the case. I would consider looking at the
struct module. Read the docs on it to find out specifics of usage.

-kannan