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Aug 14th, 2009

Find matches in two text files, output them into a third text file

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Hi,
I'm trying to take two text files, compare them, then output the matches into a new text file. I've read the thread started by the1last, but that's outputting differences, not matches. I just started learning about python a couple days ago, so I don't know anything about what syntax or modules I should use.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks.

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zmjman08

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Aug 15th, 2009

Re: Find matches in two text files, output them into a third text file

I'm new to Python as well, but I think I could offer some help.

Well if you're looking to find lines that match up, instead of words, then you can do something like this:

python Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
file1 = open("file1.txt", "r")
file2 = open("file2.txt", "r")
file3 = open("file3.txt", "a")
 
file1.seek(0,0)
file2.seek(0,0)
 
list1 = file1.readlines()
list2 = file2.readlines()
 
for i in list1:
    for j in list2:
        if i == j:
            file3.write("FILE 1:",i)
            file3.write("FILE 2:",j)
file1 = open("file1.txt", "r")
file2 = open("file2.txt", "r")
file3 = open("file3.txt", "a")

file1.seek(0,0)
file2.seek(0,0)

list1 = file1.readlines()
list2 = file2.readlines()

for i in list1:
    for j in list2:
        if i == j:
            file3.write("FILE 1:",i)
            file3.write("FILE 2:",j)

Now if you are talking about words, then you can probably go through each list and use <string>.split() on it, so you have each word in a seperate list item, but I'm not sure if that would work. Just an idea, really.

Hope I helped.

Zebibyte

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Aug 15th, 2009

Re: Find matches in two text files, output them into a third text file

Zebibyte's code idea is correct, although lines 5 & 6 are unnecessary(I think).

sravan953

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Aug 17th, 2009

Re: Find matches in two text files, output them into a third text file

Thanks for the replies.
I tried the code that Zebibyte suggested, but I'm getting the following error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File '/home/zach/bin/ps3.py", line 7, in <module>
list1 = file1.readLines()
AttributeError: 'file' object has no attribute 'readLines'

zmjman08

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Aug 17th, 2009

Re: Find matches in two text files, output them into a third text file

readLines() is a type error; the 'l' is not capitals. So- readlines()

Last edited by sravan953; Aug 17th, 2009 at 10:46 am. Reason: Code mistake

sravan953

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Aug 17th, 2009

Re: Find matches in two text files, output them into a third text file

Oh yeah, thanks.

zmjman08

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Aug 17th, 2009

Re: Find matches in two text files, output them into a third text file

Thanks to both of you for your help.

Here is the final working version of the code:

Python Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
#!/usr/bin/env python
 
textfile = file('results.txt', 'wt')
 
file1 = open("list1.txt", "r")
file2 = open("list2.txt", "r")
file3 = open("results.txt", "a")
 
list1 = file1.readlines()
list2 = file2.readlines()
 
file3.write("The following entries appear in both lists: \n")
 
for i in list1:<blockquote>for j in list2:</blockquote><blockquote><blockquote>if i==j:</blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><blockquote>file3.write(i)</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>
#!/usr/bin/env python

textfile = file('results.txt', 'wt')

file1 = open("list1.txt", "r")
file2 = open("list2.txt", "r")
file3 = open("results.txt", "a")

list1 = file1.readlines()
list2 = file2.readlines()

file3.write("The following entries appear in both lists: \n")

for i in list1:<blockquote>for j in list2:</blockquote><blockquote><blockquote>if i==j:</blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><blockquote>file3.write(i)</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>

zmjman08

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Aug 7th, 2010

Re: Find matches in two text files, output them into a third text file

What codee would I have to add/replace if i wanted to compare words and not lines?

eldeingles

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Aug 7th, 2010

Re: Find matches in two text files, output them into a third text file

Use difflib.

pyTony

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Aug 7th, 2010

Re: Find matches in two text files, output them into a third text file

I need to compare a text in a txt file against another txt file containing a list of words (one word/expresion per line) to get the words present in the tetx file NOT contained in the list of words written to a new file.

This way i can focus on new words to bullid up a dictionary foro my pupils.
Thx in advance.

eldeingles

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