Coding challenge that takes a file of records, parsing them and outputting as valid json according to a standard.

• python run.py to process the input file and write out the ordered results as JSON. Output gets written to the output/result.out file.
• python tests.py to run the unit tests.

The input file will contain entries of personal information in multiple formats. These entries must be normalized into a standard JSON format.

Some sample lines might be:

Lastname, Firstname, (703)-742-0996, Blue, 10013
Firstname Lastname, Red, 11237, 703 955 0373
Firstname, Lastname, 10013, 646 111 0101, Green

The order and format of the lines may vary as above, in those 3 specific formats.

Some lines may be invalid, but should not interfere with processing. If a line is invalid, the line number is appeneded to an "errors" key at the end of the json file.

The "entries" list in the json file should be sorted in ascending alphabetical order by (last name, first name).

My solution was to validate the various entry parts with regular expressions, and then make acceptable formats using lists comprised of those regular expressions. For each line, it loops through the accepted formats and returns False if it finds a part that doesn't match up. At this point, the line number of the improperly formatted entry is added to the "errors" list of the class. If it makes it through without finding a mismatch, then the entry is deemed to have correct formatting, and the entry is added to the "entries" list of the class.

After all entries are processed, the entries are sorted, and output as JSON to the result.out file.

• Write more unit tests
• Better handling of names that include middle names / initials