How to Optimize Fixed Width File Parsing in Python?

Optimizing Fixed Width File Parsing

To efficiently parse fixed-width files, one may consider leveraging Python's struct module. This approach leverages C for improved speed, as demonstrated in the following example:

<code class="python">import struct

fieldwidths = (2, -10, 24)
fmtstring = ' '.join('{}{}'.format(abs(fw), 'x' if fw < 0 else 's') for fw in fieldwidths)

unpack = struct.Struct(fmtstring).unpack_from  # Alias.
parse = lambda line: tuple(s.decode() for s in unpack(line.encode()))

line = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789\n'
fields = parse(line)
print('fields: {}'.format(fields))</code>

Alternatively, string slicing can be employed. To enhance efficiency, consider defining a lambda function that compiles slices at runtime, as seen in the below optimized version:

<code class="python">def make_parser(fieldwidths):
    cuts = tuple(cut for cut in accumulate(abs(fw) for fw in fieldwidths))
    pads = tuple(fw < 0 for fw in fieldwidths)  # bool flags for padding fields
    flds = tuple(zip_longest(pads, (0,) + cuts, cuts))[:-1]  # ignore final one
    slcs = ', '.join('line[{}:{}]'.format(i, j) for pad, i, j in flds if not pad)
    parse = eval('lambda line: ({})\n'.format(slcs))  # Create and compile source code.
    # Optional informational function attributes.
    parse.size = sum(abs(fw) for fw in fieldwidths)
    parse.fmtstring = ' '.join('{}{}'.format(abs(fw), 'x' if fw < 0 else 's')
                                                for fw in fieldwidths)
    return parse</code>

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