[Configobj-develop] YAQAQ - Yet Another Question About Quotes

[Marc T. <mar...@gm...>]

I'm using ConfigObj to parse Medicare's list of error/comment codes (when a
physician receives an electronic explanation of benefits, it's full of these
codes telling him/her exactly why Medicare isn't paying squat.)  The file is
called "Codes.ini", and generally follows INI conventions, except that:
- the first line is a release date - no "=", no nothing.  I got around that
by opening the file first, doing a readlines(), and pop()ing the date off
for use elsewhere.
- at about 75%, the following appears:

> [188]
> Message=This product/procedure is only covered when used according to FDA
> recommendations.
> EffDate=6/30/2005
> DeactDate=
> Modified=
> Note=
> [189]
> Message='Not otherwise classified' or 'unlisted' procedure code (CPT/HCPCS)
> was billed when there is a specific procedure code for this
> procedure/service
> EffDate=6/30/2005
> DeactDate=
> Modified=
> Note=

(I include number 188 just to show what these entries look like - the
trouble begins with the Message for number 189.)
Here's what I get:

> Traceback (most recent call last):
>  File "E:\fsrPy\fsrStuff\mcrCodes.pyw", line 19, in <module>
> codeFile = mcrCodes()
>  File "E:\fsrPy\fsrStuff\mcrCodes.pyw", line 17, in __init__
> self.codes = ConfigObj(tmpCodes, raise_errors=True)
>  File "C:\Python25\lib\site-packages\configobj.py", line 1272, in __init__
> self._load(infile, configspec)
>  File "C:\Python25\lib\site-packages\configobj.py", line 1341, in _load
> self._parse(infile)
>  File "C:\Python25\lib\site-packages\configobj.py", line 1687, in _parse
> ParseError, infile, cur_index)
>  File "C:\Python25\lib\site-packages\configobj.py", line 1748, in
> _handle_error
> raise error
> configobj.ParseError: Parse error in value at line 5888.
>

There aren't any "real" quotes in this file - is there any way to tell
ConfigObj to ignore any single-quote characters it finds?  If not, any
clever ideas for a workaround?  I did think of replacing "'" with "-" or
something, but there are plenty of contractions in this file, and "doesn-t"
doesn't look very pretty.  On the other hand, searching for all matched
pairs of quotes that appear in the same data item would require me to...
well, to re-invent much of the guts of ConfigObj itself, no?

If you're interested, the code file is available here:
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/AccesstoDataApplication/Downloads/MedicareRemitEasyPrint.zip
(it's inside the zip file).

Thanks!
-- 
www.fsrtechnologies.com