How to use 'python read space delimited file' in Python

147
def readFile(some_file):
148
    """
149
    Reads an ascii file if it exists, removes blank lines, whitespace, and
150
    comments (denoted by #).  It then splits values by whitespace, giving a list
151
    of all values in the file.
152
153
    Example:
154
        The file:
155
        1 2 3
156
        4
157
        5
158
        6 7
159
        Gives:
160
        ['1','2','3','4','5','6','7']
161
162
    """
163
164
    # Make sure the file is truly a file
165
    if os.path.isfile(some_file):
166
167
        # Read in the file
168
        f = open(some_file)
169
        lines = f.readlines()
170
        f.close()
171
172
        # Strip out comments, extra whitespace, and blank lines
173
        lines = [l for l in lines if l[0] != "#"]
174
        lines = [l.strip() for l in lines if len(l.strip()) != 0]
175
176
        values = "".join(lines)
177
        values = values.split()
178
179
        return values
180
181
    else:
182
        raise IOError("%s does not exist" % some_file)

111
def read_file(file_to_read, delimiter=';', encoding='utf-8-sig', skip=0):
112
    def get_real_header(header):
113
        """ Get real header cut at the first empty column """
114
        new_header = []
115
        for head in header:
116
            if head:
117
                new_header.append(head)
118
            else:
119
                break
120
        return new_header
121
    
122
    def check_id_column(header):
123
        try:
124
            header.index('id')
125
        except ValueError as ve:
126
            log_error("No External Id (id) column defined, please add one")
127
            raise ve
128
    
129
    def skip_line(reader):
130
        log_info("Skipping until line %s excluded" % skip)
131
        for _ in xrange(1, skip):
132
            reader.next()
133
134
    log('open %s' % file_csv)
135
    file_ref = open(file_csv, 'r')
136
    reader = UnicodeReader(file_ref, delimiter=separator, encoding='utf-8-sig')
137
    header = reader.next()
138
    header = get_real_header(header)
139
    check_id_column(header)
140
    skip_line(reader)
141
    data = [l for l in reader]
142
    return header, data