Matching items in a string

Question

I am trying to work with a output I am receiving from a job application database, I need each account information organized into a list but I am not sure how match the applicants startdates because it starts at #1 but sometimes it's to be paired with a different number depending if the person was hired or not.

For example startdate#1 needs to be paired with name#3, and startdate#2 needs to be paired with name#4.

What I am starting with:

FirstName#1 = Joe | FirstName#2 = Michael | FirstName#3 = Harold | FirstName#4 = John | LastName#1 = Miles | LastName#2 = Gomez | LastName#3 = Hall | LastName#4 = Hancock | Hired#1 = False | Hired#2 = False | Hired#3 = True | Hired#4 = True | StartDate#1 = 10/31/2018 | StartDate#2 = 10/25/2018 |

Need to output:

[['Joe','Miles','False'], ['Michael','Gomez','False'], ['Harold','Hall','True','10/31/2018'], ['John','Hancock','True','10/25/2018']]

Answer 1

you may do this as below: (you may want to read about python 'exec')

import re

db_output = """FirstName#1 = Joe | FirstName#2 = Michael | FirstName#3 = Harold |        FirstName#4 = John | LastName#1 = Miles | LastName#2 = Gomez | LastName#3 = Hall | LastName#4 = Hancock | Hired#1 = False | Hired#2 = False | Hired#3 = True | Hired#4 = True | StartDate#1 = 10/31/2018 | StartDate#2 = 10/25/2018 |"""

# define the keys
keys = ['FirstName', 'LastName', 'Hired', 'StartDate']

# create empty dict with name in keys
for key in keys:
    exec('{} = dict()'.format(key))

# parse and build dicts
for data in db_output.split(' |'):
    data = data.strip()
    if data == '':
        continue

    reobj = re.search('(\S+)#(\d+)\s+=(.*)', data)
    if reobj:
        key = reobj.group(1).strip()
        num = int(reobj.group(2))
        value = reobj.group(3).strip()

        print key, num, value
        exec('{}[num] = value'.format(key))

# get the inexes for FirstName and sort it
exec('firstname_indexes = {}.keys()'.format(keys[0]))
firstname_indexes = sorted(firstname_indexes)

# get all local variables (required due to usage 'exec')
local = locals()

# variable to collect all data
output = list()

# Start date starts with 1
startdate_track = 1

# use firstname indexes and track start date, create a tmp list and
# then append to output
for fn_index in firstname_indexes:
    tmp = list()
    for key in keys:
        if key == 'StartDate':
            if tmp[-1] == 'True':
                tmp.append(local[key][startdate_track])
                startdate_track += 1
            output.append(tmp)
        else:
            tmp.append(local[key][fn_index])

print output

Output:

[['Joe', 'Miles', 'False'], ['Michael', 'Gomez', 'False'], ['Harold', 'Hall', 'True', '10/31/2018'], ['John', 'Hancock', 'True', '10/25/2018']]