how to sort large files in python
def build_index(filename, sort_col):
index = []
f = open(filename)
while True:
offset = f.tell()
line = f.readline()
if not line:
break
length = len(line)
col = line.split('\t')[sort_col].strip()
index.append((col, offset, length))
f.close()
index.sort()
return index
def print_sorted(filename, col_sort):
index = build_index(filename, col_sort)
f = open(filename)
for col, offset, length in index:
f.seek(offset)
print f.read(length).rstrip('\n')
if __name__ == '__main__':
filename = 'somefile.txt'
sort_col = 2
print_sorted(filename, sort_col)