My First Program in Python

WARNING: I have no formal training in computer programming. I do not claim that this is elegant programming, and I am probably violating all kinds of naming and structural conventions. But the program works, and I feel like a superhero.

The Objective (see my last post): Write a program (script) that takes a 3-column txt-file as input (borehole number, latitude, longitude) and converts this into a KML file that I can open in and plot with Google Earth.

 Trouble: The hardest part was figuring out that unless my txt file is in UTF-8, the numbers were getting al screwed up. Somehow, I ended up with extra whitespace between the digits of my coordinates. Other than that, all this was very straightforward with a good Python reference at hand. Like I said, this was my first program !

Here is the code:

print “\nProgram will convert a 3-column TXT-file (UTF-8) \n
Borehole No. – Latitude – Longitude \n
into a KML file that can be plotted in Google Earth.”

newfile=[]
file_name = raw_input(“Enter file name: “)  # Open a source TXT file with coordinate data
text_file = open(file_name, “r”)
lines = text_file.readlines()

for line in lines:                          # Read coordinates into a list, line by line
    alist=line.split()        # alist[0]=Borehole,alist[1]=Latitude,alist[2]=Longitude
    print ”’Borehole %s is located at latitude %s and longitude %s”’ % (alist[0],alist[1],alist[2])
    newfile.append(alist)                   # Collect the lists with coordinate data in another list
text_file.close()

file_name = raw_input(“Enter file name for KML output: “)   # Select name for Output file

text_file = open(file_name, ‘w’)     # Create file to save KML text in
kmlheader=”’<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?><kml xmlns=”http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2“>
<Folder><name>%s</name>”’ % (file_name)
text_file.writelines(kmlheader)             # Write tags to file
for borehole in newfile:  
    kmltext=”’<Placemark><name>%s</name><Point><coordinates>%s,%s,0</coordinates></Point></Placemark>”’ % (borehole[0],borehole[1],borehole[2])   # Create coordinate data
    text_file.writelines(kmltext)           # Write coordinate data to file
    kmlfooter=”’</Folder></kml>”’         # Create kml closing tags 
text_file.writelines(kmlfooter)             # Add kml closing tags

text_file.close()