From: Rodrigo Bermejo <rodrigo.bermejo@...>
Date: 2009-01-10T02:31:07+09:00
Subject: Re: finding a range of lines from a text document

Adam Akhtar wrote:
> Can anyone help me? ill try and keep it short and to the point.
> 
> wish : to be able to grab select lines from a text document which meet
> some criteria.
> 
> current idea: simply read the file as one big string and use a regexp to
> find all text between a /marker_one/ and /marker_two/
> 
> but: in general ill only be ever manipulating a single line at a time so
> simply using readlines to store a file into an array and they
> manipulating that seems a lot easier than storing a file as a string and
> figuring out where one line starts and one line ends.
> 
> file example:
> 
> ### next actions ###
> 
> ### project: buy pc ###
> 3 read posts on hardforum
> 4 use froogle.com
> 3 buy parts
> 4 build pc
> 5 install os
> 
> ### project: become millionaire ###
> 2 get job
> 3 save money
> 4 start own business
> 3 sell business
> 3 sell drugs
> 
> ### project: have the biggest collection of pants on earth
> 3 learn about pants
> 4 become a member of pantsinc.net
> 
> 
> aim: to have a method which will take the top most line of each project
> and copy it into the next actions area. Something easy to read yet
> relatively efficient.
> 
> yes this is yet another todo list. A task will only ever be one line.
> Hence why dealing with an array seems easier.
> 
> If anyone has any tips suggestions etc it will help me out a lot.

This one of the algorithms you will find along the programmer way.
I am not going to give you the hole solution ..but here is a clue..

read line by line
  once you find the starting tag turn on a flag
  do whatever you want with the current line if the flag is on
  once you find the ending tag turn off the flag

-r.
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