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let’s split

Let’s begin by reading the data from each of the files into its own list. You were to write a short
program to process each file, creating a list for each athlete’s data. You were then to display the
lists on screen. Open the file.
with open(‘james.txt’) as jaf:

data = jaf.readline() Read the line of data.

james = data.strip().split(‘,’) Convert the data to a list.

with open(‘julie.txt’) as juf:
data = juf.readline()
Open each of
the data files julie = data.strip().split(‘,’)
in turn, read
the line of with open(‘mikey.txt’) as mif:
data from the
file, and create data = mif.readline()
a list from the
line of data. mikey = data.strip().split(‘,’)
with open(‘sarah.txt’) as saf:

data = saf.readline()

sarah = data.strip().split(‘,’)

print(james)

print(julie)

print(mikey) Display the four lists on screen.
print(sarah)

Q: That data.strip().split(',') line looks a little weird. Can you explain what’s going on?

A: That’s called method chaining. The first method, strip(), is applied to the line in data, which removes any unwanted whitespace
from the string. Then, the results of the stripping are processed by the second method, split(','), creating a list. The resulting list is
then applied to the target identifier in the previous code. In this way, the methods are chained together to produce the required result. It helps
if you read method chains from left to right.
142 Chapter 5