#!/usr/bin/env python import re, fileinput r_num = re.compile(r'[ \t]{,5}(\d{3})(?:\.|:| To)') f = None for line in fileinput.input(): m = r_num.match(line) if m: num = m.group(1) if f: f.close() f = open('letter' + num + '.txt', 'w') f.write(line) elif f: f.write(line) # EOF