How to remove spaces while writing in INI file- Python

Question

I am using a file and i have one section named DIR in which it contain the paths. EX:

[DIR]
DirTo=D:\Ashish\Jab Tak hai Jaan
DirBackup = D:\Parser\ERICSSON_CSCORE_STANDARD_VMS\Backup
ErrorDir = D:\Parser\ERICSSON_CSCORE_STANDARD_VMS\Error

CombinerDir = D:\Parser\ERICSSON_CSCORE_STANDARD_VMS\Combiner
DirFrom=D:\Parser\ERICSSON_CSCORE_STANDARD_VMS\In
PidFileDIR = D:\Parser\ERICSSON_CSCORE_STANDARD_VMS\Pid
LogDir = D:\Parser\ERICSSON_CSCORE_STANDARD_VMS\Log   
TempDir = D:\Parser\ERICSSON_CSCORE_STANDARD_VMS\Temp

Now I want to replace the paths which I have done it but when I replaced its giving me spaces after and before the delimiter in the newly written .ini file. For example: DirTo = D:\Parser\Backup. How I remove these spaces?

Code:

def changeINIfile():
    config=ConfigParser.RawConfigParser(allow_no_value=False)
    config.optionxform=lambda option: option
    cfgfile=open(r"D:\Parser\ERICSSON_CSCORE_STANDARD_VMS\Windows\opx_PAR_GEN_660_ERICSSON_CSCORE_STANDARD_PM_VMS_MALAYSIA.ini","w")
    config.set('DIR','DirTo','D:\Ashish\Jab Tak hai Jaan')
    config.optionxform=str
    config.write(cfgfile)
    cfgfile.close()

Answer 1

Here is the definition of RawConfigParser.write:

def write(self, fp):
    """Write an .ini-format representation of the configuration state."""
    if self._defaults:
        fp.write("[%s]\n" % DEFAULTSECT)
        for (key, value) in self._defaults.items():
            fp.write("%s = %s\n" % (key, str(value).replace('\n', '\n\t')))
        fp.write("\n")
    for section in self._sections:
        fp.write("[%s]\n" % section)
        for (key, value) in self._sections[section].items():
            if key != "__name__":
                fp.write("%s = %s\n" %
                         (key, str(value).replace('\n', '\n\t')))
        fp.write("\n")

As you can see, the %s = %s\n format is hard-coded into the function. I think your options are:

1. Use the INI file with whitespace around the equals
2. Overwrite RawConfigParser's write method with your own
3. Write the file, read the file, remove the whitespace, and write it again

If you're 100% sure option 1 is unavailable, here's a way to do option 3:

def remove_whitespace_from_assignments():
    separator = "="
    config_path = "config.ini"
    lines = file(config_path).readlines()
    fp = open(config_path, "w")
    for line in lines:
        line = line.strip()
        if not line.startswith("#") and separator in line:
            assignment = line.split(separator, 1)
            assignment = map(str.strip, assignment)
            fp.write("%s%s%s\n" % (assignment[0], separator, assignment[1]))
        else:
            fp.write(line + "\n")

Answer 2

I ran into this problem to and I came up with an additional solution.

• I didn't want to replace the function as future versions of Python might change the internal function structures of RawConfigParser.
• I also didn't want to read the file back in right after it was written because that seemed wasteful

Instead I wrote a wrapper around the file object which simply replaces " = " with "=" in all lines written though it.

class EqualsSpaceRemover:
    output_file = None
    def __init__( self, new_output_file ):
        self.output_file = new_output_file

    def write( self, what ):
        self.output_file.write( what.replace( " = ", "=", 1 ) )

config.write( EqualsSpaceRemover( cfgfile ) )