Extract a specific value from a text file-CodePudding

total newbie here. I have a .txt file and I want to extract a specific value.... the .txt file is structure like this: { "animal": "Cat", "colour": "golden", ...and so on }

I can open and print he whole file ...... but how do I print just the "animal" plus its value which in this case is "cat" bit?

The file itself has hundreds of entries and I want to know how to extract and print all the "animal"s for example. Any help greatly appreciated.

CodePudding user response：

The text file you provided seems to be a dictionary itself. So I suggest you use ast module in order to change the format of this text file from string to a valid dictionary and then call animal key from this dictionary:

import ast
with open("myText.txt") as f:
  myFile = f.read()
  myDict = ast.literal_eval(myFile)
  print(myDict["animal"])

Output

Cat

Note that, I have named the text file myText.txt. It might be different in your machine, so change it to the valid path of your text file.

CodePudding user response：

You could use the json module to load the file contents which, from the sample you've given will result in a Python dictionary. So...

import json

with open('myfile.txt') as myData:
  myDict = json.load(myData)
  print(myData['animal'])

Output:

Cat