Formatting a data file

funkey_monkey

Hi,

I've got a data file which I need re-format in order that it can be input to an old piece of analysis software.
Basically I need to adjust gaps between columns of data and also right justify some data.

What is the best way to go about doing this?


Thanks.

Seth Brundle

Excel?

funkey_monkey

I'm doing it in Python - found a script which does something similar.

How do I ensure a number such as 12.258 is presented as 000012.258 in Python?

StupidLikeAFox

This should help:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/339007/how-to-pad-zeroes-to-a-string

funkey_monkey

Thanks - found zfill when searching and it seems to have done what I need.

JoyPad

funkey_monkey wrote: »

I'm doing it in Python - found a script which does something similar.

How do I ensure a number such as 12.258 is presented as 000012.258 in Python?

>>> print("%010.3f" % 12.345)
000012.345

"f" is for floating point values, and it has two numbers, separated by a dot:
%M.Nf means M total digits (including the decimal point), of which N are decimal places. Prefixing M with a 0 means showing leading zeroes, instead of spaces.

So, in the example above, we have 10 total digits, of which 6 will be allocated for the integer part, and 3 for the decimal places, leaving one for the dot.

If you have a number of fields that you want to output on the same line, you can use a larger format sequence:

>>> name = "JoyPad"
>>> salary = 180000
>>> daily = 695.956
>>> print("%20s%010d%010.3f" % (name, salary, daily))
              JoyPad0000180000000695.956

So, the name is printed using maximum 20 characters, padded with spaces, using 's' specification for String.
The salary is printed as a integer number, using 'd', on 10 characters, padded with zeroes.
The daily rate is printed with the format discussed above.

This is a common type of file format used in accounting and banking, called fixed width format.