My first Python script, concordance.py
Posted on November 10, 2014 in Uncategorized by Eric Lease Morgan
Below is my first Python script, concordance.py:
#!/usr/bin/env python2 # concordance.py - do KWIK search against a text # # usage: ./concordance.py <file> <word>ph # Eric Lease Morgan <emorgan@nd.edu> # November 5, 2014 - my first real python script! # require import sys import nltk # get input; needs sanity checking file = sys.argv[ 1 ] word = sys.argv[ 2 ] # do the work text = nltk.Text( nltk.word_tokenize( open( file ).read( ) ) ) text.concordance( word ) # done quit()
Given the path to a plain text file as well as a word, the script will output no more than twenty-five lines containing the given word. It is a keyword-in-context (KWIC) search engine, one of the oldest text mining tools in existence.
The script is my first foray into Python scripting. While Perl is cool (and “kewl”), it behooves me to learn the language of others if I expect good communication to happen. This includes others using my code and me using the code of others. Moreover, Python comes with a library (module) call the Natural Langauge Toolkit (NLTK) which makes it relatively easy to get my feet wet with text mining in this environment.
