How to concatenate multiple paragraphs from JSON field into one paragraph in .txt?

Question

I’m trying to concatenate reviews from multiple paragraphs into one— i’m trying it like this:

for x in docs:
   with open(fp) as data_file:
     data_item = json.load(data_file)
     b = data_item['reviews']
     for item in b:
        name = '000' + str(counter) + '.txt'
        file = open(name, 'wb')
        output = item['text']
        " ".join(output.split())
        counter = counter+1
        file.write(output.encode('utf-8'))
        file.close()

It’s not working however; each .txt output file is as it is (with \n \n) in the JSON field...

Example JSON:

{ "reviews": [ { "created": "2008-07-09T00:00:00", "text": "There's something reassuring etc. \n\nThe band's skill etc. \n\nCraig Finn's vocals etc.\n", }, "votes_negative": 0, "votes_positive": 0 } ] }

Resultant output (.txt):

There's something reassuring etc.

The band's skill etc.

Craig Finn's vocals etc.

Many thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You don't assign the output of join to a variable, try this:

# sidenote: use enumerate to replace counter
for counter, item in enumerate(b):
    name = '000' + str(counter) + '.txt'
    output = item['text']
    output = ' '.join(output.split())

    # imho with is always nicer than open/close
    with open(name, ‘wb’) as file:
        file.write(output.encode(‘utf-8’))

Answer 2

If i'm reading your question correctly, you want everything all on one line, which you could do with this:

...
            output = item['text'].replace('\n',' ')
...

Output:

There's something reassuring etc.   The band's skill etc.   Craig Finn's vocals etc.

or if you want one line between each:

...
            output = item['text'].replace('\n\n','\n')
...

Output:

There's something reassuring etc.
The band's skill etc.
Craig Finn's vocals etc.
# One extra blank line here