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pythonparsingtext

How to parse this format (Praat TextGrid)

TextGrid is the "segmentation" file used by Praat program. I'd like to write a parser that will then verify the data. My question is:

How would you write a parser for this format? Read it line by line or something else? Is this a known format?

File type = "ooTextFile"
Object class = "TextGrid"

xmin = 0 
xmax = 93.0538775510204 
tiers? <exists> 
size = 3 

item []: 
    item [1]:
        class = "IntervalTier" 
        name = "diph" 
        xmin = 0 
        xmax = 93.0538775510204 
        intervals: size = 65 
        intervals [1]:
            xmin = 0 
            xmax = 1.300090702947846 
            text = "" 
        intervals [2]:
            xmin = 1.300090702947846 
            xmax = 1.5300845864661654 
            text = "ey_s" 
        intervals [3]:
            xmin = 1.5300845864661654 
            xmax = 3.4648692624493815 
            text = ""

(This is then repeated to EOF, with intervals[4....n])

Solution

  • TextGrid parser already exists and it is a part of NLTK Toolkit. The Python file is here:

    http://nltk.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/nltk_contrib/nltk_contrib/textgrid.py

    Updated link: https://github.com/nltk/nltk_contrib/blob/master/nltk_contrib/textgrid.py