>>> text = '''18:41:48 Cisco 100/100 -39 -97 Symbol 100/100 -27 -97 18:41:49 Cisco 100/100 -37 -97 Symbol 100/100 -27 -97 18:41:49 18:41:49 ''' >>> def f(text): lines=text.split('\n') is_res=True print '\tCisco\tSymbol' for line in lines: s=line.split() if len(s)==1: if not is_res: print '%s\t0\t0' % t t=s[0] is_res=False; else: if s[0]=='Cisco': is_res=True; print '%s\t%s' % (t, s[1]), elif s[0]=='Symbol': print s[1] if not is_res: print '%s\t0\t0' % t >>> f(text) Cisco Symbol 18:41:48 100/100 100/100 18:41:49 100/100 100/100 18:41:49 0 0 18:41:49 0 0 >>>