How do I search for a pattern within a text file using Python combining regex & string/file operations and store instances of the pattern?

Question

So essentially I\'m looking for specifically a 4 digit code within two angle brackets within a text file. I know that I need to open the text file and then parse line by lin

Answer 1

Doing it in one bulk read:

import re

textfile = open(filename, 'r')
filetext = textfile.read()
textfile.close()
matches = re.findall("(<(\d{4,5})>)?", filetext)

Line by line:

import re

textfile = open(filename, 'r')
matches = []
reg = re.compile("(<(\d{4,5})>)?")
for line in textfile:
    matches += reg.findall(line)
textfile.close()

But again, the matches that returns will not be useful for anything except counting unless you added an offset counter:

import re

textfile = open(filename, 'r')
matches = []
offset = 0
reg = re.compile("(<(\d{4,5})>)?")
for line in textfile:
    matches += [(reg.findall(line),offset)]
    offset += len(line)
textfile.close()

But it still just makes more sense to read the whole file in at once.