Python - Parsing A Text File Into A Csv File

I have a text file that is output from a command that I ran with Netmiko to retrieve data from a Cisco WLC of things that are causing interference on our WiFi network. I stripped

Solution 1:

I think your best option is to read all lines of the file, then split into sections starting with AP Name. Then you can work on parsing each section.

Example

s = """AP Name.......................................... 010-HIGH-FL4-AP04
Microwave Oven      11       10      -59         Mon Dec 18 08:21:23 2017   
WiMax Mobile               11       0       -84         Fri Dec 15 17:09:45 2017   
WiMax Fixed                11       0       -68         Tue Dec 12 09:29:30 2017   
AP Name.......................................... 010-2nd-AP04
Microwave Oven             11       10      -61         Sat Dec 16 11:20:36 2017   
WiMax Fixed                11       0       -78         Mon Dec 11 12:33:10 2017   
AP Name.......................................... 139-FL1-AP03
Microwave Oven             6        18      -51         Fri Dec 15 12:26:56 2017   
AP Name.......................................... 010-HIGH-FL3-AP04
Microwave Oven             11       10      -55         Mon Dec 18 07:51:23 2017   
WiMax Mobile               11       0       -83         Wed Dec 13 16:16:26 2017"""import re

classAP:
    """ 
    A class holding each section of the parsed file
    """def__init__(self):
        self.header = ""
        self.content = []

sections = []
section = Nonefor line in s.split('\n'):  # Or 'for line in file:'# Starting new sectionif line.startswith('AP Name'):
        # If previously had a section, add to listif section isnotNone:
            sections.append(section)  
        section = AP()
        section.header = line
    else:
        if section isnotNone:
            section.content.append(line)
sections.append(section)  # Add last section outside of loopfor section in sections:
    ap_name = section.header.lstrip("AP Name.")  # lstrip takes all the characters given, not a literal stringfor line in section.content:
        print(ap_name + ",", end="") 
        # You can extract the date separately, if needed# Splitting on more than one space using a regex
        line = ",".join(re.split(r'\s\s+', line))
        print(line.rstrip(','))  # Remove trailing comma from imperfect split

Output

010-HIGH-FL4-AP04,MicrowaveOven,11,10,-59,MonDec1808:21:232017010-HIGH-FL4-AP04,WiMaxMobile,11,0,-84,FriDec1517:09:452017010-HIGH-FL4-AP04,WiMaxFixed,11,0,-68,TueDec1209:29:302017010-2nd-AP04,MicrowaveOven,11,10,-61,SatDec1611:20:362017010-2nd-AP04,WiMaxFixed,11,0,-78,MonDec1112:33:102017139-FL1-AP03,MicrowaveOven,6,18,-51,FriDec1512:26:562017010-HIGH-FL3-AP04,MicrowaveOven,11,10,-55,MonDec1807:51:232017010-HIGH-FL3-AP04,WiMaxMobile,11,0,-83,WedDec1316:16:262017

Tip:

You don't need Python to write the CSV, you can output to a file using the command line

python script.py > output.csv