Comparing lines of two text files in python [duplicate]

Answer 1

Don't just read the files line by line but filter each line: extract the stuff within ( ) and remove BlockNum: if it exists. Something like this:

def getRecords(fn):
    for line in open(fn, 'r'):
        entry = line.rstrip()[line.find('(')+1:-1]
        if entry.startswith('BlockNum:'):
            yield entry[10:]
        else:
            yield entry

import itertools
filesAreEqual = all(a == b for a, b in itertools.izip(getRecords("file1.txt"),
                                                      getRecords("file2.txt")))