4
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This program converts glob files' tabs to spaces. There is a special case to ignore content inside triple back ticks.

Example usage is ./tab_2_spaces.py *.md

Main Concern: Can I write the while loop better?

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""
This program is used to convert markdown file's tab indentations to 2 spaces.
"""

import argparse
from pathlib import Path
import os
import io
import itertools
from multiprocessing import Pool

_TAB_2_SPACE = "  "


def fix_indent(filename):
    with io.open(filename, mode="r", encoding="utf-8") as h:
        text = h.read()

    lines = text.splitlines(True)
    c = len(lines)
    i = 0

    # Replace tab to spaces
    while i < c:
        line = lines[i]

        if line.startswith("```"):
            i += 1
            while i < c:
                if lines[i].startswith("```"):
                    break
                i += 1
            else:
                continue
            break
        elif line.startswith("\t"):
            lines[i] = line.replace("\t", _TAB_2_SPACE)

        i += 1

    with io.open(filename, mode="w", encoding="utf-8") as h:
        h.write("".join(lines))


def main():
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Fix indent")
    parser.add_argument(
        "files", metavar="N", type=str, nargs="+", help="List of files to scan"
    )

    args = parser.parse_args()
    all_files = tuple(
        itertools.chain(
            *[
                (filename for filename in Path().glob("**/" + file_))
                for file_ in args.files
            ]
        )
    )

    with Pool(2) as process_pool:
        process_pool.map(fix_indent, all_files)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()
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1 Answer 1

2
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A lot of the code in your while loop can be replaced with a for loop using enumerate() and a toggled boolean.

You should be able to replace your code from c = len(lines) (line 21) down through your entire while loop with:


skip = False
for index, line in enumerate(lines):
    if line.startswith("```"):
        skip = not skip
    else:
        if not skip:
            if line.startswith("\t"):
                lines[index] = line.replace("\t", _TAB_2_SPACE)

I can't test this right now, so please let me know if you run in to any problems with this implementation.

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4
  • \$\begingroup\$ You can merge else and if to an elif 🤔and next if with an and. \$\endgroup\$ Sep 10, 2019 at 10:00
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ elif not skip and line.startswith("\t"): \$\endgroup\$ Sep 10, 2019 at 10:03
  • \$\begingroup\$ @bhathiya-perera I felt that my implementation was easier to read so I chose not to condense it, but you are correct. \$\endgroup\$ Sep 10, 2019 at 17:14
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Indeed. It's far better than the Java like Python I've written above. :) \$\endgroup\$ Sep 10, 2019 at 20:03

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