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:mod:`fileinput` --- Iterate over lines from multiple input streams
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===================================================================
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:synopsis: Loop over standard input or a list of files.
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.. moduleauthor:: Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org>
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.. sectionauthor:: Fred L. Drake, Jr. <fdrake@acm.org>
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This module implements a helper class and functions to quickly write a
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loop over standard input or a list of files. If you just want to read or
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write one file see :func:`open`.
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for line in fileinput.input():
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This iterates over the lines of all files listed in ``sys.argv[1:]``, defaulting
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to ``sys.stdin`` if the list is empty. If a filename is ``'-'``, it is also
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replaced by ``sys.stdin``. To specify an alternative list of filenames, pass it
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as the first argument to :func:`input`. A single file name is also allowed.
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All files are opened in text mode by default, but you can override this by
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specifying the *mode* parameter in the call to :func:`input` or
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:class:`FileInput()`. If an I/O error occurs during opening or reading a file,
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:exc:`IOError` is raised.
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If ``sys.stdin`` is used more than once, the second and further use will return
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no lines, except perhaps for interactive use, or if it has been explicitly reset
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(e.g. using ``sys.stdin.seek(0)``).
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Empty files are opened and immediately closed; the only time their presence in
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the list of filenames is noticeable at all is when the last file opened is
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Lines are returned with any newlines intact, which means that the last line in
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a file may not have one.
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You can control how files are opened by providing an opening hook via the
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*openhook* parameter to :func:`fileinput.input` or :class:`FileInput()`. The
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hook must be a function that takes two arguments, *filename* and *mode*, and
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returns an accordingly opened file-like object. Two useful hooks are already
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provided by this module.
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The following function is the primary interface of this module:
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.. function:: input([files[, inplace[, backup[, mode[, openhook]]]]])
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Create an instance of the :class:`FileInput` class. The instance will be used
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as global state for the functions of this module, and is also returned to use
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during iteration. The parameters to this function will be passed along to the
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constructor of the :class:`FileInput` class.
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.. versionchanged:: 2.5
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Added the *mode* and *openhook* parameters.
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The following functions use the global state created by :func:`fileinput.input`;
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if there is no active state, :exc:`RuntimeError` is raised.
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.. function:: filename()
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Return the name of the file currently being read. Before the first line has
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been read, returns ``None``.
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.. function:: fileno()
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Return the integer "file descriptor" for the current file. When no file is
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opened (before the first line and between files), returns ``-1``.
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.. function:: lineno()
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Return the cumulative line number of the line that has just been read. Before
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the first line has been read, returns ``0``. After the last line of the last
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file has been read, returns the line number of that line.
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.. function:: filelineno()
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Return the line number in the current file. Before the first line has been
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read, returns ``0``. After the last line of the last file has been read,
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returns the line number of that line within the file.
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.. function:: isfirstline()
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Returns true if the line just read is the first line of its file, otherwise
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.. function:: isstdin()
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Returns true if the last line was read from ``sys.stdin``, otherwise returns
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.. function:: nextfile()
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Close the current file so that the next iteration will read the first line from
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the next file (if any); lines not read from the file will not count towards the
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cumulative line count. The filename is not changed until after the first line
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of the next file has been read. Before the first line has been read, this
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function has no effect; it cannot be used to skip the first file. After the
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last line of the last file has been read, this function has no effect.
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.. function:: close()
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The class which implements the sequence behavior provided by the module is
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available for subclassing as well:
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.. class:: FileInput([files[, inplace[, backup[, mode[, openhook]]]]])
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Class :class:`FileInput` is the implementation; its methods :meth:`filename`,
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:meth:`fileno`, :meth:`lineno`, :meth:`filelineno`, :meth:`isfirstline`,
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:meth:`isstdin`, :meth:`nextfile` and :meth:`close` correspond to the functions
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of the same name in the module. In addition it has a :meth:`readline` method
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which returns the next input line, and a :meth:`__getitem__` method which
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implements the sequence behavior. The sequence must be accessed in strictly
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sequential order; random access and :meth:`readline` cannot be mixed.
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With *mode* you can specify which file mode will be passed to :func:`open`. It
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must be one of ``'r'``, ``'rU'``, ``'U'`` and ``'rb'``.
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The *openhook*, when given, must be a function that takes two arguments,
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*filename* and *mode*, and returns an accordingly opened file-like object. You
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cannot use *inplace* and *openhook* together.
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.. versionchanged:: 2.5
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Added the *mode* and *openhook* parameters.
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**Optional in-place filtering:** if the keyword argument ``inplace=1`` is passed
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to :func:`fileinput.input` or to the :class:`FileInput` constructor, the file is
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moved to a backup file and standard output is directed to the input file (if a
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file of the same name as the backup file already exists, it will be replaced
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silently). This makes it possible to write a filter that rewrites its input
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file in place. If the *backup* parameter is given (typically as
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``backup='.<some extension>'``), it specifies the extension for the backup file,
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and the backup file remains around; by default, the extension is ``'.bak'`` and
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it is deleted when the output file is closed. In-place filtering is disabled
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when standard input is read.
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The current implementation does not work for MS-DOS 8+3 filesystems.
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The two following opening hooks are provided by this module:
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.. function:: hook_compressed(filename, mode)
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Transparently opens files compressed with gzip and bzip2 (recognized by the
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extensions ``'.gz'`` and ``'.bz2'``) using the :mod:`gzip` and :mod:`bz2`
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modules. If the filename extension is not ``'.gz'`` or ``'.bz2'``, the file is
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opened normally (ie, using :func:`open` without any decompression).
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Usage example: ``fi = fileinput.FileInput(openhook=fileinput.hook_compressed)``
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.. versionadded:: 2.5
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.. function:: hook_encoded(encoding)
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Returns a hook which opens each file with :func:`codecs.open`, using the given
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*encoding* to read the file.
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Usage example: ``fi =
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fileinput.FileInput(openhook=fileinput.hook_encoded("iso-8859-1"))``
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With this hook, :class:`FileInput` might return Unicode strings depending on the
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specified *encoding*.
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.. versionadded:: 2.5