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Compare two different files line by line and write the difference in third file – Python

The logic in my head works something like this…
for line in import_file check to see if it contains any of the items in Existing-user-string-list if it contains any one of the items from that list then delete that line for the file.

filenew = open('new-user', 'r')
filexist = open('existing-user', 'r')
fileresult = open('result-file', 'r+')
xlines = filexist.readlines()
newlines = filenew.readlines()
for item in newlines:
    if item contains an item from xlines
        break
    else fileresult.write(item)
filenew.close()
filexist.close()
fileresult.close()

I know this code is all jacked up but perhaps you can point me in the right direction.

Thanks!

Edit —-

Here is an example of what is in my existing user file….

allyson.knanishu
amy.curtiss
amy.hunter
amy.schelker
andrea.vallejo
angel.bender
angie.loebach

Here is an example of what is in my new user file….

aimee.neece,aimee,neece,[e-mail],aimee neece,aimee neece,"CN=aimee neece,OU=Imported,dc=Faculty,dc=asdf,dc=org"
alexis.andrews,alexis,andrews,[e-mail],alexis andrews,alexis andrews,"CN=alexis andrews,OU=Imported,dc=Faculty,dc=asdf,dc=org"
alice.lee,alice,lee,[e-mail],alice lee,alice lee,"CN=alice lee,OU=Imported,dc=Faculty,dc=asdf,dc=org"
allyson.knanishu,allyson,knanishu,[e-mail],allyson knanishu,allyson knanishu,"CN=allyson knanishu,OU=Imported,dc=Faculty,dc=asdf,dc=org"

New code from @mikebabcock … thanks.

outfile = file("result-file.txt", "w")
lines_to_check_for = [ parser(line) for line in file("existing-user.txt", "r") ]
for line in file("new-user.txt", "r"):
    if not parser(line) in lines_to_check_for:
        outfile.write(line)

Added an import statement for the parser… I am receiving the following error…

C:\temp\ad-import\test-files>python new-script.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "new-script.py", line 7, in <module>
    lines_to_check_for = [ parser(line) for line in file("existing-user.txt", "r
     ") ]
  TypeError: 'module' object is not callable

Thanks!

Answer 1

I presume this is what you want to do:

outfile = file("outfile.txt", "w")
lines_to_check_for = [ line for line in file("list.txt", "r") ]
for line in file("testing.txt", "r"):
    if not line in lines_to_check_for:
        outfile.write(line)

This will read all the lines in list.txt into an array, and then check each line of testing.txt against that array. All the lines that aren’t in that array will be written out to outfile.txt.

Here’s an updated example based on your new question:

newusers = file("newusers.txt", "w")
existing_users = [ line for line in file("users.txt", "r") ]
for line in file("testing.txt", "r"):
    # grab each comma-separated user, take the portion left of the @, if any
    new_users = [ entry.split["@"](0) for entry in line.split(",") ]
    for user in new_users:
        if not user in existing_users:
            newusers.write(user)