Question

Let say there is a sample text file in Linux

[SampleText.txt]

1234 = 1234

abcd = 1234

efgh = /home/user/targetfile1.txt

ijkl = /home/user/targetfile2.txt

How I can get the specific path (/home/user/targetfile1.txt & /home/user/targetfile2.txt) out from the SampleText.txt and place it in a variable?

Answer 1

My suggested approach is to parse the file as a general configuration file, and store things that look like assignments. If you have other weird stuff going on in your file, this may not work, but I think it will work here.

myvars = {}

# iterate through all the lines
for line in open('SampleText.txt').readlines():
    # skip this line if it doesn't look like an assignment
    if not '=' in line: continue

    # split it into left and right pieces
    left, right = line.split('=', 1)

    # keep it around in a dictionary
    myvars[left.strip()] = right.strip()

# now you can query it to get stuff:
myvars['efgh']   # returns /home/user/targetfile1.txt