Tkinter GUI to Convert Fixed Width File to Delimited File

If I understand the problem correctly (and there's a good chance I don't...), the simplest solution might be to use a text widget.

Make the first line be a series of spaces the same length as the row. Use a couple of alternating tags (eg: "even" and "odd") to give each character an alternate color so they stand out from one another. The second line would be the header, and any remaining lines would be a couple lines of sample data.

Then, set up bindings on the first row to convert a space into an "x" when the user clicks on a character. If they click on an "x", convert it back to a space. They can then go and click on the character that is the start of each column. When the user is done, you can get the first line of the text widget and it will have an "x" for each column. You then just need a little function that translates that into whatever format you need.

It would look roughly like this (though obviously the colors would be different than what appears on this website)

      x          x                                     x  ...SequenSack and PaFull Name****************************]JOB...000001T1  P1     Sample A Sample                          ...

Here's a quick hack to illustrate the general idea. It's a little sloppy but I think it illustrates the technique. When you run it, click on an area in the first row to set or clear a marker. This will cause the header to be highlighted in alternate colors for each marker.

import sysimport Tkinter as tkimport tkFontclass SampleApp(tk.Tk):    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):        tk.Tk.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)        header = "SequenSack and PaFull Name****************************]JOB TITLE****************]HOSP NAME******************************]Delivery Address***********************]Alternate 1 Address********************]Calculated Text**********************************]POSTNET Bar"        sample = "000001T1  P1     Sample A Sample                                                                                         123 Any Street                                                                  Anytown 12345-6789                                12345678900"        widget = DelimiterWidget(self, header, sample)        hsb = tk.Scrollbar(orient="horizontal", command=widget.xview)        widget.configure(xscrollcommand=hsb.set)        hsb.pack(side="bottom", fill="x")        widget.pack(side="top", fill="x")class DelimiterWidget(tk.Text):    def __init__(self, parent, header, samplerow):        fixedFont = tkFont.nametofont("TkFixedFont")        tk.Text.__init__(self, parent, wrap="none", height=3, font=fixedFont)        self.configure(cursor="left_ptr")        self.tag_configure("header", background="gray")        self.tag_configure("even", background="#ffffff")        self.tag_configure("header_even", background="bisque")        self.tag_configure("header_odd", background="lightblue")        self.tag_configure("odd", background="#eeeeee")        markers = " "*len(header)        for i in range(len(header)):            tag = "even" if i%2==0 else "odd"            self.insert("end", " ", (tag,))        self.insert("end", "\n")        self.insert("end", header+"\n", "header")        self.insert("end", samplerow, "sample")        self.configure(state="disabled")        self.bind("<1>", self.on_click)        self.bind("<Double-1>", self.on_click)        self.bind("<Triple-1>", self.on_click)    def on_click(self, event):        '''Handle a click on a marker'''        index = self.index("@%s,%s" % (event.x, event.y))        current = self.get(index)        self.configure(state="normal")        self.delete(index)        (line, column) = index.split(".")        tag = "even" if int(column)%2 == 0 else "odd"        char = " " if current == "x" else "x"        self.insert(index, char, tag)        self.configure(state="disabled")        self.highlight_header()        return "break"    def highlight_header(self):        '''Highlight the header based on marker positions'''        self.tag_remove("header_even", 1.0, "end")        self.tag_remove("header_odd", 1.0, "end")        markers = self.get(1.0, "1.0 lineend")        i = 0        start = "2.0"        tag = "header_even"        while True:            try:                i = markers.index("x", i+1)                end = "2.%s" % i                self.tag_add(tag, start, end)                start = self.index(end)                tag = "header_even" if tag == "header_odd" else "header_odd"            except ValueError:                breakif __name__ == "__main__":    app = SampleApp()    app.mainloop()

edit: I now see that you are looking for a gui. I'll leave this incorrect answer for posterity.

import csvdef fixedwidth2csv(fw_name, csv_name, field_info, headings=None):    with open(fw_name, 'r') as fw_in:        with open(csv_name, 'rb') as csv_out: # 'rb' => 'r' for python 3            wtr = csv.writer(csv_out)            if headings:                wtr.writerow(headings)            for line in fw_in:                wtr.writerow(line[pos:pos+width].strip() for pos, width in field_info)