hopedale.txt

Coloured fox fur production, HOPEDALE, Labrador, 1834-1842
#Source: C. Elton (1942) "Voles, Mice and Lemmings", Oxford Univ. Press
#Table 17, p.265--266
      29
      22
       2
      16
      12
      35
       8
      83
     166

read_smallest_skip.py

import time_series


def smallest_value(reader):
    """ (file open for reading) -> NoneType
    Read and process reader and return the smallest value after the
    time_series header.
    """
    line = time_series.skip_header(reader).strip()
    # Now line contains the first data value; this is also the smallest value # found so far, because it is the only one we have seen.
    smallest = int(line)
    for line in reader:
        value = int(line.strip())
    # If we find a smaller value, remember it.
    if value < smallest: smallest = value
    return smallest

if __name__ == '__main__':
    with open('hopedale.txt', 'r') as input_file:
        print(smallest_value(input_file))

time_series.py

def skip_header(reader):
    """ (file open for reading) -> str
    Skip the header in reader and return the first real piece of data.
    """

    # Read the description line
    line = reader.readline()

    # Find the first non-comment line
    line = reader.readline()
    while line.startswith('#'):
        line = reader.readline()

    # Now line contains the first real piece of data
    return line

def process_file(reader):
    """ (file open for reading) -> NoneType
    Read and print the data from reader, which must start with a single description line, then a sequence of lines beginning with '#', then a sequence of data.
    """

    # Find and print the first piece of data
    line = skip_header(reader).strip()
    print(line)

    # Read the rest of the data
    for line in reader:
        line = line.strip()
        print(line)