def data_to_scl(file_name): header = 'insert into species (species_id, species_name, genus_id, description, average_length, average_weight, primary_color) values \n' end_sql = '\n);' new_file = open('sql.txt', 'w') new_file.write(header) with open(file_name, 'r') as file: for line in file: data = line.split('|') new_list = [] # new_list.append('(' + data[1].strip() + ',\n') new_list.append("('" + data[2].strip() + "',\n") new_list.append(data[3].strip() + ',\n') new_list.append("'" + data[4].strip() + "',\n") new_list.append(data[5].strip() + ',\n') new_list.append(data[6].strip() + ',\n') new_list.append("'" + data[7].strip() + "'),\n") for new in new_list: new_file.write(new) # new_file.write('),(\n') new_file.write(end_sql) new_file.close() def main(): data_to_scl('data.txt') if __name__ == '__main__': main()