read_table in pandas, how to get input from text to a dataframe

Question

Alabama[edit]
Auburn (Auburn University)[1]
Florence (University of North Alabama)
Jacksonville (Jacksonville State University)[2]
Alaska[edit]
Fairbanks (University of Alaska Fairbanks)[2]
Arizona[edit]
Flagstaff (Northern Arizona University)[6]
Tempe (Arizona State University)
Tucson (University of Arizona)

This is my text, i need to create a data frame with 1 column for the state name, and another column for the town name, i know how to remove the university names. but how do i tell pandas that at every [edit] is a new state.

expected output dataframe

Alabama Auburn
Alabama Florence 
Alabama Jacksonville
Alaska  Fairbanks 
Arizona Flagstaff
Arizona Tempe
Arizona Tucson  

I am not sure if i can use read_table, if i can how? I did import everything into a dataframe but the state and the city are in the same column. Also i tried with a list, but the problem is still the same.

I need something that works like if there is a [edit] in the line then all the value after it and before the next [edit] line is the state of the lines in between

Answer 1

Maybe pandas can do it but you can do it easily.

data = '''Alabama[edit]
Auburn (Auburn University)[1]
Florence (University of North Alabama)
Jacksonville (Jacksonville State University)[2]
Alaska[edit]
Fairbanks (University of Alaska Fairbanks)[2]
Arizona[edit]
Flagstaff (Northern Arizona University)[6]
Tempe (Arizona State University)
Tucson (University of Arizona)'''

# ---

result = []

state = None

for line in data.split('\n'):

    if line.endswith('[edit]'):
        # remember new state
        state = line[:-6] # without `[edit]`
    else:
        # add state, city to result
        city, rest = line.split(' ', 1)
        result.append( [state, city] )

# --- display ---

for state, city in result:
    print(state, city)

if you read from file then

result = []

state = None

with open('your_file') as f:
    for line in f:
        line = line.strip() # remove '\n'

        if line.endswith('[edit]'):
            # remember new state
            state = line[:-6] # without `[edit]`
        else:
            # add state, city to result
            city, rest = line.split(' ', 1)
            result.append( [state, city] )

# --- display ---

for state, city in result:
    print(state, city)

Now you can use result to create DataFrame.