Hello, I have created a script that successfully searches for keywords (specified by user) within a Blastx output file in XML format. Now, I need to write those records (query, hit, score, evalue, etc) that contain the keyword in the alignment title to a new file. I have created separate lists for each of the query titles, hit title, e-value and alignment lengths but cannot seem to write them to a new file. Problem #1: what if Python errors, and one of the lists is missing a value...? Then all the other lists will be giving wrong information in reference to the query ("line slippage", if you will...). Problem #2: even if Python doesn't error, and all the lists are the same length, how can I write them to a file so that the first item in each list is associated with each other (and thus, item #10 from each list is also associated?) Should I create a dictionary instead? Problem#3: dictionaries have only a single value for a key, what if my query has several different hits? Not sure if it will be overwritten or skipped, or if it will just error. Any suggestions? My current script:

from Bio.Blast import NCBIWWW
from Bio.Blast import NCBIXML
import re

#obtain full path to blast output file (*.xml)
outfile = input("Full path to Blast output file (XML format only): ")

#obtain string to search for
search_string = input("String to search for: ")

#open the output file
result_handle = open(outfile)

#parse the blast record
blast_records = NCBIXML.parse(result_handle)

#initialize lists
query_list=[]
hit_list=[]
expect_list=[]
length_list=[]

#create 'for loop' that loops through each HIGH SCORING PAIR in each ALIGNMENT from each RECORD
for record in blast_records:
        for alignment in record.alignments:     #for description in record.descriptions???
                for hsp in alignment.hsps:      #for title in description.title???

                        #search for designated string
                        search = re.search(search_string, alignment.title)

                        #if search comes up with nothing, end
                        if search is None:
                                print ("Search string not found.")
                                break

                        #if search comes up with something, add it to a list of entries that match search string
                        else:

                                #option to include an 'exception' (if it finds keyword then DOES NOT add that entry to list)
                                if search is "trichomonas" or "entamoeba" or "arabidopsis":
                                        print ("found exception.")
                                        break
                                else:

                                        query_list.append(record.query)
                                        hit_list.append(alignment.title)
                                        expect_list.append(expect_val)
                                        length_list.append(length)

                                        #explicitly convert 'variables' ['int' object or 'float'] to strings
                                        length = str(alignment.length)
                                        expect_val = str(hsp.expect)

                                        #print ("\nquery name: " + record.query)
                                        #print ("alignment title: " + alignment.title)
                                        #print ("alignment length: " + length)
                                        #print ("expect value: " + expect_val)
                                        #print ("\n***Alignment***\n")
                                        #print (hsp.query)
                                        #print (hsp.match)
                                        #print (hsp.sbjct + "\n\n")


                                        if query_len is not hit_len is not expect_len is not length_len:
                                                print ("list lengths don't match!")
                                                break
                                        else:

                                                qrylen = len(query_list)
                                                query_len = str(qrylen)
                                                hitlen = len(hit_list)
                                                hit_len = str(hitlen)
                                                expectlen = len(expect_list)
                                                expect_len = str(expectlen)
                                                lengthlen = len(length_list)
                                                length_len = str(lengthlen)
                                                outpath = str(outfile)

                                                #create new file
                                                outfile = open("__Blast_Parse_Search.txt", "w")
                                                outfile.write("File contains entries from [" + outpath + "] that contain [" + search_string + "]")
                                                outfile.close

                                                #write list to file
                                                i = 0
                                                list_len = int(query_len)
                                                for i in range(0, list_len):

                                                        #append new file
                                                        outfile = open("__Blast_Parse_Search.txt", "a")
                                                        outfile.writelines(query_list + hit_list + expect_list + length_list)
                                                        i = i + 1

                                                #write to disk, close file
                                                outfile.flush()
                                                outfile.close

print ("query list length " + query_len)
print ("hit list length " + hit_len)
print ("expect list length " + expect_len)
print ("length list length " + length_len + "\n\n")
print ("first record: " + query_list[0] + " " + hit_list[0] + " " + expect_list[0] + " " + length_list[0])
print ("last record: " + query_list[-1] + " " + hit_list[-1] + " " + expect_list[-1] + " " + length_list[-1])
print ("\nFinished.\n")