Writing CHAT Data

To output CHAT data, a CHAT object can either export data to local files or write its data to strings.

These methods are useful for saving CHAT data for re-use or distribution, especially when your data or CHAT object is customized in some way, e.g., by adding or removing data from an existing dataset, or through an in-memory CHAT data string – see Reading CHAT Data.

from rustling.chat import CHAT
chat_data = CHAT.from_strs(["*MOT:\they sweetie ."])
chat_data.to_files("output_dir/")

If your CHAT object has data organized in multiple CHAT files, to_files() writes them all to the given directory:

import rustling
brown = rustling.read_chat("path/to/your/local/Brown.zip")
# Brown has data for Adam, Eve, and Sarah.
# Now we want to save only Eve and Sarah's data somewhere on disk.
eve_and_sarah = brown.filter(files="Eve|Sarah")
eve_and_sarah.to_files("your/new/directory")

By default, filenames are derived from the original source file paths (e.g., foo.cha stays foo.cha). If the data was parsed from in-memory strings without explicit IDs, numbered names are used (0001.cha, 0002.cha, etc.). To override, use the filenames keyword argument of to_files().

If you would like the CHAT data as strings in memory for use cases other than local file export, to_strs() is available.