Stackoverflow question 6413439 answer

6413439_answer.py

def extract_day_month(line, context):
    """Handle user defined variables, day and month"""
    parts = line.split()
    context['user_defined_month'] = [1]
    context['user_defined_day'] = [4]


def extract_re(pattern):
    """Return a callable that adds matched group values to context dict
    """
    def _extractor(line, context):
        patt = re.compile(pattern)
        context.update( patt.findall() )
    return _extractor


extractors = {
    'month:' : extract_day_month,
    'solar zenith angle' : extract_re(r'[\s+](?P<user_defined_solar_zenith>[0-9\.]+) deg')
}


def parse(infile):
    ## Ignore 'blank' lines
    infile = (line for line in infile if 
              line.replace('*', '').replace(' ', '').replace('-', ''))
    
    context = {}
    
    for line in infile:
        for label, extractor in extractors.iteritems():
            if label in line:
                extractor(line, context)
                break
    
    print(context)