[Solved] Sorting strings into dictionary, where initial char is the key and the value is a list of all lines starting with that char

by 


def main():
    # I'm assuming you can get this far...
    lines = [
        '1,some stuff 1',
        '2,some stuff 2,more stuff',
        '2,some stuff 4,candy,bacon',
        '3,some stuff 3,this,is,horrible...'
    ]

    # Something to hold your parsed data
    data = {}

    # Iterate over each line of your file
    for line in lines:

        # Split the data apart on comma per your example data
        parts = line.split(',')

        # denote the key is the first part of the split data
        key = parts[0]
        if key not in data:
            # Since there could be multiple values per key we need to keep a
            # list of mapped values
            data[key] = []

        # put the "other data" into the list
        index_of_sep = line.find(',')
        data[key].append(line[index_of_sep+1:])

    # You probably want to return here. I'm printing so you can see the result
    print(data)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Result

C:\Python35\python.exe C:/Users/Frito/GitSource/sandbox/sample.py
{'3': ['some stuff 3,this,is,horrible...'], '1': ['some stuff 1'], '2': ['some stuff 2,more stuff', 'some stuff 4,candy,bacon']}

Process finished with exit code 0

3

solved Sorting strings into dictionary, where initial char is the key and the value is a list of all lines starting with that char