Question

I parse a .txt like this:

def parse_file(src):
    for line in src.readlines():
        if re.search('SecId', line):
            continue
        else:
            cols = line.split(',')
            Time = cols[4]
            output_file.write('{}\n'.format(
                          Time))

I think cols are lists that I could use index. Although it succeeds in printing out correct result as I want, there exists an out of range error:

File “./tdseq.py”, line 37, in parse_file
Time = cols[4]
IndexError: list index out of range
make: * [all] Error 1

Data I use:

I10.FE,--,xx,xxxx,13450,tt,tt,tt,33,22,22:33:44

Answer 1

Without seeing the data, it’s hard to say.

Possible causes are that you are assuming 1-based indexing, when a line like:

foo,bar,baz,qux

would be indexed as positions 0,1,2,3 in the list.

By the way, I highly recommend you to parse your file using the csv module.