Replacing multiple characters in string

[mmharris]

#input file
fin = open("H:/AFILES/Test2.txt", "rt")
#output file to write the result to
fout = open("H:/AFILES/Test2Replaced.txt", "wt")
#for each line in the input file
for line in fin:
   #read replace the string and write to output file
   fout.write(line.replace('X','"').replace('Y','","').replace('Z','","')+'"')
# why does +'"'  put the last " at start of the next line down?
#close input and output files
fin.close()
fout.close()

Input
X -6.0000Y -1.2000Z -7.6000 
X -6.0000Y -0.0293Z -7.6000
X -6.0000Y -0.0213Z -7.6000

What I Get with above code
" -6.0000"," -1.2000"," -7.6000 
"" -6.0000"," -0.0293"," -7.6000
"" -6.0000"," -0.0213"," -7.6000"

What I Want
" -6.0000"," -1.2000"," -7.6000"
" -6.0000"," -0.0293"," -7.6000"
" -6.0000"," -0.0213"," -7.6000"

Thanks All

[KrisKaplan · Accepted solution]

Each line read from the file will be line ending character, and with the Universal line endings (default) that line ending would be the \n character. So when you append anything to the end of a line read from a file like this, you are appending after the newline character. So instead of appending " at the end of the line, you could just replace the line ending.

fout.write(line.replace('X','"').replace('Y','","').replace('Z','","').replace('\n', '"\n')

But looking at what you want to do, I might instead go with a regex and capture the x, y, and z values and write out the line as a formatted string exactly like you want.

Kris

[mmharris]

THANK YOU

your change from my code of:  

+ ' " '   

to your code of:

.replace('\n', '"\n'))

solves most or all of the problem

I notice that the first and last lines of code seem to have a space before the  "

but I can manually edit that out in the 2 lines

whereas manually editing 2000 + lines of code many times is a nonstarter

PLUS for all I know the software I'm trying to alter the file for will be fine with the 2 spaces

or might not work at all for other reasons

1 step forward thank you

as a beginning python programmer

1) I did not know about default line ending character

2) my python  vocabulary and programing knowledge is so rudimentary I can't understand

    most of what you wrote BUT your 1 line of code is easy to follow

FYI

running the following 

X -6.0000Y -1.2000Z -7.6000
X -6.0000Y -0.0293Z -7.6000
X -6.0000Y -0.0213Z -7.6000
X -6.0000Y -0.0209Z -7.6000
X -6.0000Y -0.0129Z -6.9592
X -6.0000Y -0.0049Z -6.9484
X -6.0000Y 0.0031Z -6.9312
X -6.0000Y 0.0111Z -6.9204
X -6.0000Y 0.0191Z -6.9069
X -6.0000Y 0.0271Z -6.8960
X -6.0000Y 0.0351Z -6.8849
X -6.0000Y 0.0431Z -6.8740
X -6.0000Y 0.0511Z -6.8632
X -6.0000Y 0.0591Z -6.8530
X -6.0000Y 0.0671Z -6.8439
X -6.0000Y 0.0751Z -6.8346
X -6.0000Y 0.0831Z -6.8258
X -6.0000Y 0.0911Z -6.8169
X -6.0000Y 0.0991Z -6.8086
X -6.0000Y 0.1071Z -6.8008
X -6.0000Y 0.1151Z -6.7933
X -6.0000Y 0.1231Z -6.7855
X -6.0000Y 0.1311Z -6.7777
X -6.0000Y 0.1391Z -6.7709
X -6.0000Y 0.1471Z -6.7640
X -6.0000Y 0.1551Z -6.7572
X -6.0000Y 0.1631Z -6.7504
X -6.0000Y 0.1711Z -6.7441
X -6.0000Y 0.1791Z -6.7373
X -6.0000Y 0.1871Z -6.7311
X -6.0000Y 0.1951Z -6.7252
X -6.0000Y 0.2031Z -6.7195
X -6.0000Y 0.2111Z -6.7138

now i get  ( space " 1st line  and no" last line) 

not worth fixing at this time since easy manual edit but interesting 

thank you 1 more time

" -6.0000"," -1.2000"," -7.6000 "
" -6.0000"," -0.0293"," -7.6000"
" -6.0000"," -0.0213"," -7.6000"
" -6.0000"," -0.0209"," -7.6000"
" -6.0000"," -0.0129"," -6.9592"
" -6.0000"," -0.0049"," -6.9484"
" -6.0000"," 0.0031"," -6.9312"
" -6.0000"," 0.0111"," -6.9204"
" -6.0000"," 0.0191"," -6.9069"
" -6.0000"," 0.0271"," -6.8960"
" -6.0000"," 0.0351"," -6.8849"
" -6.0000"," 0.0431"," -6.8740"
" -6.0000"," 0.0511"," -6.8632"
" -6.0000"," 0.0591"," -6.8530"
" -6.0000"," 0.0671"," -6.8439"
" -6.0000"," 0.0751"," -6.8346"
" -6.0000"," 0.0831"," -6.8258"
" -6.0000"," 0.0911"," -6.8169"
" -6.0000"," 0.0991"," -6.8086"
" -6.0000"," 0.1071"," -6.8008"
" -6.0000"," 0.1151"," -6.7933"
" -6.0000"," 0.1231"," -6.7855"
" -6.0000"," 0.1311"," -6.7777"
" -6.0000"," 0.1391"," -6.7709"
" -6.0000"," 0.1471"," -6.7640"
" -6.0000"," 0.1551"," -6.7572"
" -6.0000"," 0.1631"," -6.7504"
" -6.0000"," 0.1711"," -6.7441"
" -6.0000"," 0.1791"," -6.7373"
" -6.0000"," 0.1871"," -6.7311"
" -6.0000"," 0.1951"," -6.7252"
" -6.0000"," 0.2031"," -6.7195"
" -6.0000"," 0.2111"," -6.7138