How to extract specific columns from a space separated file in Python?

Question

I\'m trying to process a file from the protein data bank which is separated by spaces (not \\t). I have a .txt file and I want to extract specific rows and, from that rows,

Answer 1

If you already have extracted the line, you can split it using line.split(). This will give you a list, of which you can extract all the elements you need:

>>> test='HELIX 2 2 CYS A 97'
>>> test.split()
['HELIX', '2', '2', 'CYS', 'A', '97']
>>> test.split()[3]
'CYS'