{"id":4666,"date":"2026-10-23T06:31:38","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T06:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/?p=4666"},"modified":"2026-10-23T06:31:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T06:31:40","slug":"python-code-to-read-eml-files-in-zip-for-social-science-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/23\/python-code-to-read-eml-files-in-zip-for-social-science-research\/","title":{"rendered":"python code to read EML files in zip for social science research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8221;import os<br>import glob<br>import patoolib<br>from email import policy<br>from email.parser import BytesParser<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">def parse_eml(file_path):<br>&#8220;&#8221;&#8221;Parses an .eml file and returns metadata and body text.&#8221;&#8221;&#8221;<br>try:<br>with open(file_path, &#8216;rb&#8217;) as f:<br>msg = BytesParser(policy=policy.default).parse(f)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\"> <code>   subject = msg['subject'] or \"No Subject\"\n    date_str = msg['date'] or \"Unknown Date\"\n    \n    body = \"\"\n    if msg.is_multipart():\n        for part in msg.iter_parts():\n            if part.get_content_type() == 'text\/plain':\n                payload = part.get_content()\n                if isinstance(payload, str):\n                    body = payload\n                    break\n    else:\n        payload = msg.get_content()\n        if isinstance(payload, str):\n            body = payload\n            \n    return {\n        'filename': os.path.basename(file_path),\n        'subject': subject,\n        'date': date_str,\n        'body': body.strip()\n    }\nexcept Exception as e:\n    print(f\"Error parsing {file_path}: {e}\")\n    return None<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">def summarize_text(text, max_lines=3):<br>&#8220;&#8221;&#8221;Basic extractive summarizer taking the first few meaningful lines.&#8221;&#8221;&#8221;<br>if not text:<br>return &#8220;No content available to summarize.&#8221;<br>lines = [line.strip() for line in text.split(&#8216;\\n&#8217;) if line.strip()]<br>summary_lines = lines[:max_lines]<br>return &#8221; &#8220;.join(summary_lines) if summary_lines else &#8220;Empty email body.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">def process_rar_robustly(rar_path, output_file_path, extract_dir=&#8221;extracted_emails&#8221;):<br>if not os.path.exists(rar_path):<br>print(f&#8221;RAR file not found: {rar_path}&#8221;)<br>return<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>print(f\"Extracting {rar_path} using patool...\")\nos.makedirs(extract_dir, exist_ok=True)\n\ntry:\n    patoolib.extract_archive(rar_path, outdir=extract_dir)\n    print(\"Extraction completed successfully.\")\nexcept Exception as e:\n    print(f\"Extraction error: {e}\")\n    return\n\n# Find all .eml files recursively in the extracted directory\nsearch_path = os.path.join(extract_dir, '**', '*.eml')\neml_files = glob.glob(search_path, recursive=True)\n\ntotal_files = len(eml_files)\nprint(f\"Found {total_files} .eml files. Processing and deduplicating...\")\n\nseen_timestamps = set()\nunique_emails = &#91;]\n\nfor idx, file_path in enumerate(eml_files, 1):\n    if idx % 500 == 0:\n        print(f\"Processed {idx}\/{total_files} files...\")\n        \n    email_data = parse_eml(file_path)\n    if not email_data:\n        continue\n        \n    timestamp = email_data&#91;'date']\n    if timestamp in seen_timestamps:\n        continue\n        \n    seen_timestamps.add(timestamp)\n    unique_emails.append(email_data)\n\nprint(f\"\\nRetained {len(unique_emails)} unique emails out of {total_files} total files.\")\n\n# Write combined output to a single file\nwith open(output_file_path, 'w', encoding='utf-8') as out_f:\n    out_f.write(\"=\" * 70 + \"\\n\")\n    out_f.write(f\"COMBINED EMAIL SUMMARIES REPORT ({len(unique_emails)} Unique Files)\\n\")\n    out_f.write(\"=\" * 70 + \"\\n\\n\")\n    \n    for idx, item in enumerate(unique_emails, 1):\n        summary = summarize_text(item&#91;'body'])\n        \n        out_f.write(f\"&#91;{idx}] File: {item&#91;'filename']}\\n\")\n        out_f.write(f\"Subject: {item&#91;'subject']}\\n\")\n        out_f.write(f\"Date\/Time: {item&#91;'date']}\\n\")\n        out_f.write(f\"Summary:\\n{summary}\\n\")\n        out_f.write(\"-\" * 70 + \"\\n\\n\")\n\nprint(f\"Successfully wrote combined output to: {output_file_path}\")<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">if <strong>name<\/strong> == &#8220;<strong>main<\/strong>&#8220;:<br>process_rar_robustly(&#8220;spammaillist.rar&#8221;, &#8220;combined_summary.txt&#8221;)&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8221;import osimport globimport patoolibfrom email import policyfrom email.parser import BytesParser def parse_eml(file_path):&#8220;&#8221;&#8221;Parses an .eml file and returns metadata and body text.&#8221;&#8221;&#8221;try:with open(file_path, &#8216;rb&#8217;) as f:msg = BytesParser(policy=policy.default).parse(f) subject = msg[&#8216;subject&#8217;] or &#8220;No Subject&#8221; date_str = msg[&#8216;date&#8217;] or &#8220;Unknown Date&#8221; body <a href=\"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/23\/python-code-to-read-eml-files-in-zip-for-social-science-research\/\" class=\"read-more\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4667,"href":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4666\/revisions\/4667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}