From: AleydisGP on
I have a .plt file (which is a tab delimited ASCII file) and I want to
format it to get a .dbf with data in rows and columns, detele some
rows/columns and substitute decimal '.' with ','. All this using Python
(I'm using Pythonwin).

The .plt file looks like this:

* ISCST3 (02035): Tersa
* MODELING OPTIONS USED:
* CONC URBAN ELEV DFAULT

* PLOT FILE OF ANNUAL VALUES FOR SOURCE GROUP: ALL
* FOR A TOTAL OF 400 RECEPTORS.
* FORMAT: (3(1X,F13.5),1X,F8.2,2X,A6,2X,A8,2X,I8.8,2X,A8)
* X Y AVERAGE CONC ZELEV
* ___________ ___________ ___________ ______
430342.00000 4580537.00000 0.25426 19.28
430842.00000 4580537.00000 0.27233 14.72
431342.00000 4580537.00000 0.30566 2.84
431842.00000 4580537.00000 0.30379 0.21
432342.00000 4580537.00000 0.27413 1.13
432842.00000 4580537.00000 0.25462 0.00
433342.00000 4580537.00000 0.25114 0.00
433842.00000 4580537.00000 0.28779 0.00
434342.00000 4580537.00000 0.29707 0.00
434842.00000 4580537.00000 0.31067 0.00
....


I recorded a macro in Excel with the whole process, but when trying to
translate it into Python I get syntax errors which I don't know how to
solve.

This is my python code:
## ------------------------------------------
import win32com.client
excel = win32com.client.Dispatch("Excel.Application")
excel.Visible = 0
workbook=excel.Workbooks.Open('D:\AN00GALL.plt')

excel.Columns("A:A").Select
excel.Selection.Replace What:=".", Replacement:=",", LookAt:=xlPart, _
SearchOrder:=xlByRows, MatchCase:=False, SearchFormat:=False, _
ReplaceFormat:=False

excel.Columns("A:A").Select
excel.Selection.TextToColumns Destination:=Range("A1"),
DataType:=xlFixedWidth, _
FieldInfo:=Array(Array(0, 1), Array(2, 1), Array(14, 1),
Array(29, 1), Array(42, 1), _
Array(53, 1), Array(59, 1), Array(71, 1), Array(79, 1)),
ThousandsSeparator:=" ", _
TrailingMinusNumbers:=True

excel.Selection.Delete Shift:=xlToLeft

excel.Rows("1:6").Select
excel.Selection.Delete Shift:=xlUp
excel.Rows("2:2").Select
excel.Selection.Delete Shift:=xlUp

excel.Columns("A:C").Select
excel.Selection.NumberFormat = "0.00000"
excel.Columns("D:D").Select
excel.Selection.NumberFormat = "0.00"
excel.ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs Filename:= _
"D:\AN00GALL.dbf", FileFormat:= _
xlDBF4, CreateBackup:=False

excel.Quit()
## ------------------------------------------

Any ideas on what am I doing wrong?
Thank you.

From: Bruno Desthuilliers on
AleydisGP(a)gmail.com a �crit :
> I have a .plt file (which is a tab delimited ASCII file) and I want to
> format it to get a .dbf with data in rows and columns, detele some
> rows/columns and substitute decimal '.' with ','. All this using Python

Then you may want to have a look here:
http://docs.python.org/lib/module-csv.html
and here:
http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/362715

> (I'm using Pythonwin).
>
> The .plt file looks like this:
>
> * ISCST3 (02035): Tersa
> * MODELING OPTIONS USED:
> * CONC URBAN ELEV DFAULT
>
> * PLOT FILE OF ANNUAL VALUES FOR SOURCE GROUP: ALL
> * FOR A TOTAL OF 400 RECEPTORS.
> * FORMAT: (3(1X,F13.5),1X,F8.2,2X,A6,2X,A8,2X,I8.8,2X,A8)
> * X Y AVERAGE CONC ZELEV
> * ___________ ___________ ___________ ______
> 430342.00000 4580537.00000 0.25426 19.28
> 430842.00000 4580537.00000 0.27233 14.72
> 431342.00000 4580537.00000 0.30566 2.84
> 431842.00000 4580537.00000 0.30379 0.21
> 432342.00000 4580537.00000 0.27413 1.13
> 432842.00000 4580537.00000 0.25462 0.00
> 433342.00000 4580537.00000 0.25114 0.00
> 433842.00000 4580537.00000 0.28779 0.00
> 434342.00000 4580537.00000 0.29707 0.00
> 434842.00000 4580537.00000 0.31067 0.00
> ....
>
> I recorded a macro in Excel with the whole process, but when trying to
> translate it into Python I get syntax errors which I don't know how to
> solve.
>
> This is my python code:
> ## ------------------------------------------
> import win32com.client
> excel = win32com.client.Dispatch("Excel.Application")
> excel.Visible = 0
> workbook=excel.Workbooks.Open('D:\AN00GALL.plt')
> excel.Columns("A:A").Select
> excel.Selection.Replace What:=".", Replacement:=",", LookAt:=xlPart, _
> SearchOrder:=xlByRows, MatchCase:=False, SearchFormat:=False, _
> ReplaceFormat:=False

Ok. Where is your attempt to "translate" to Python, exactly ? So far,
except for the first 2 lines, it's vb code, not Python. Please start by
learning Python, then start doing the translation - and then we'll be
glad to help you.

(snip vb code)

> Any ideas on what am I doing wrong?

Yes : trying to feed vb code to the Python interpreter.

From: gblais on
Or, you might want to look at two packages:

xlrd

pyExcelerator

The first can "read" .xls files, and the second can write them. I've had
great results with both.

Gerry
From: John Machin on
gblais(a)cox.net wrote:
> Or, you might want to look at two packages:
>
> xlrd
>
> pyExcelerator
>
> The first can "read" .xls files, and the second can write them. I've had
> great results with both.
>

Hi Gerry,

Thanks for the testimonial for xlrd :-)

However I don't understand how a reasonable solution to the OP's
requirement (translate a tab-separated file to a DBF file with a bit of
slicing and dicing on the way) would have anything to do with .xls
files, or Excel, or VB ...

Cheers,
John

From: AleydisGP on
Sorry for my little knowledge on Python. Actually my knowledge is
specific for automating geo-processing tasks within ESRI environment,
but sometimes I need to automate some other tasks (like this one) which
require more in-depth knowledge of this language.
Lots of documentation are of no use when you don't know exactly what to
look for or have a wrong idea of what to do.
Thanks for the guidance.

On 8 ene, 02:21, Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfr...(a)ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> On 7 Jan 2007 17:06:10 -0800, "John Machin" <sjmac...(a)lexicon.net>
> declaimed the following in comp.lang.python:
>
> > However I don't understand how a reasonable solution to the OP's
> > requirement (translate a tab-separated file to a DBF file with a bit of
> > slicing and dicing on the way) would have anything to do with .xls
> > files, or Excel, or VB ... Only in that the original poster stated they were trying to
> translate an Excel VBA "macro" into Python, and the malformed (for
> Python) code appeared to be using Window's COM access to run all the
> work via Excel (I presume via importing the TSV, performing the edits,
> then exporting via some DBF compatible format -- ODBC?).
>
> I'd agree, however, that the specification of the task to be
> performed does not, it would seem, require any of the clumsiness of
> using Excel. Read the lines of the TSV file using proper specifications
> to the Python CSV file handling module, edit the lines as needed, and
> write them via an ODBC (or other) database adapter that generates the
> desired DBF format...
> --
> Wulfraed Dennis Lee Bieber KD6MOG
> wlfr...(a)ix.netcom.com wulfr...(a)bestiaria.com
> HTTP://wlfraed.home.netcom.com/
> (Bestiaria Support Staff: web-a...(a)bestiaria.com)
> HTTP://www.bestiaria.com/