Q:

searching for an array of keywords in an array of files

inputs=[]
def pickinputs():         
search_chars=['WaveDir', 'WaveHs', 'WaveTp', 'WtrDpth', 'Number of mooring lines', 'Reference height', 'Reference wind speed', 'Grid height', 'Grid width', 'Analysis time']        
files=[file_platform, file_wind, file_primary]
m=0
while True:
    inputfile=open(files[m],'r')        
    for i in range(len(search_chars)):        
        j=1
        for lines in inputfile:
            if search_chars[i] in lines:
                line= linecache.getline(files[m], j)
                line_split = line.split(' ')
                #print (line_split)
                for k in range(len(line_split)):
                    if line_split[k]!= "":
                        break
                    val=line_split[k+1]
                inputs.append(val)
            j=j+1
    m=m+1

Aim is to search each text of search_chars in files and get its line number in that file(in files) and split to read the first non-space value (it is a number) and append it to inputs. I could write the same in a bigger way, but I would like to do it in an efficient way. The search_chars may be present in any one of the files.
Could anyone suggest modifications in the code that I wrote, to make it work efficiently? Thanks 

A:

You could do something like the following:
inputs = []
search_strings = ['WaveDir', 'WaveHs', 'WaveTp', 'WtrDpth', 'Number of mooring lines', 'Reference height', 'Reference wind speed', 'Grid height', 'Grid width', 'Analysis time']
files = ['input.txt', 'input2.txt']

for filename in files: 
    with open(filename) as f_input:
        for line_number, line in enumerate(f_input, start=1):
            for search in search_strings:
                if search in line:
                    first_non_space = line.strip().split(' ')[0]
                    inputs.append((filename, line_number, search, first_non_space))
                    #print filename, line_number, search

for filename, line_number, search_matched, first_non_space in inputs:            
    print filename, line_number, search_matched, first_non_space

This would build up the inputs list with all of the matches, giving you the filename, line_number, search_matched and the first non space value in the line for all of the files you search.

