Python Help!

[Jolie Tia]

Hello,

I am trying to create a function that will search a fixed line of text for a word or phrase. Once that is completed, I am to try and pass the line of text and the word as parameters. Can someone help lead me in the right direction. I have literally just started learning this language for week. Im using python 3.1. Im using the terminal window in mac for python. Below is what I have done so far, which is to see if I can search a file for a specific string and return the results. The error message is also shown below. What am I doing wrong?

>>> def search_linetest():

...     path= '/Users/jolie_tia/Documents'
...     dir= os.listdir(path)
...     for file in dir:
...             open('/Users/jolie_tia/Documents/sample.txt')
...     s= file.read()
...     x= text.find('I was scared to pieces.')
...     if x != -1:
...             print ('Line was found starting at character', x)
...     else:
...             print ('Line not found')
... 
>>> 
>>> linetest()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "<stdin>", line 2, in linetest
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'Users/jolie_tia/Documents/sample.text'

[beverly.sage]

An easy way to error check this would be to add a new line after line five to print the results of your directory search.

print dir
look through the results and see if there is a misspelling in the document title.
My most recent file search was defeated by the file being named in creation "example.txt", ad was a .txt file. So it was really named "example.txt.txt" which was hard to spot.

[TrustyTony]

Line six is opening the file sample.txt as many times as there is files in dir without saving it for later use. I think that is not what you are after. The error simply says that such file as does not exist, but it is strange that it is missing the root /.

[David W]

You may like to see this demo (modify to suit your needs):

import os


def search_linetest():
    path = 'C:/Users/dwzavitz/Desktop/2014Files/DaniPython' #'/Users/jolie_tia/Documents'
    dir = os.listdir(path)
    for file in dir:
        print( file )
        if '.exe' in file:
            pass
        else:
            #open('/Users/jolie_tia/Documents/sample.txt')
            f = open( file )
            s = f.read()
            #x= s.find('I was scared to pieces.')
            x= s.find( 'print' )
            if x != -1:
                print( 'Line was found starting at character', x )
            else:
                print('Line not found')
            input( "Press 'Enter' to continue ... " )


search_linetest()

[Jolie Tia]

David thank you so much for your help. I tried the improved code and I still got errors. This is what I put:

>>> import os
>>> 
>>> def search_linetest():
...     path=('/Users/jolie_tia/Documents')
...     dir=os.listdir(path)
...     for file in dir:
...             print(file)
...             if '.exe' in file:
...                     pass
...             else:
...                     f=open('Users/jolie_tia/Documents/sample.txt')
...                     s=f.read()
...                     x= s.find('I was scared to pieces.')
...                     if x != -1:
...                             print ('Line was found starting at character', x)
...                     else:
...                             print('Line not found')
...                     input("Press 'Enter' to continue...")

This is the error I received:

>>> search_linetest()
 dbst665 project chat.docx
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "<stdin>", line 9, in search_linetest
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'Users/jolie_tia/Documents/sample.txt'

I just wanted to look at the specific file sample.txt. I understand what the code is saying and trying to do, but it's not working.

[snippsat]

The error message is very clear,Python can not find "sample.txt" in that path.

with open('C:/Users/jolie_tia/Documents/sample.txt') as f:
    print f.name

'''Output-->
Message File Name   Line    Position
    Traceback
<module> <module4>    1
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory:                               'C:/Users/jolie_tia/Documents/sample.txt'
'''

Here i fixing the error by making folders for that path and put "sample.txt" in Documents folder.

with open('C:/Users/jolie_tia/Documents/sample.txt') as f:
    print f.name

'''Output-->
C:/Users/jolie_tia/Documents/sample.txt
'''

Check your path to file again,cd to folder in Linux(terminal) an open sample.txt.
I guess you use Linux because you have not specified a drive letter.
If you use Windows,you do of course need to specifi a drive letter as i do.

Dont use file as a variable name,file is a reserved word used bye Python.

[David W]

Dont use file as a variable name,file is a reserved word used bye Python.

Hey ... sorry I missed that ... is that why you 'down-voted' ?

[Gribouillis]

It is not true that fileis a reserved word in python. file is the name of a standard type in python 2. Using file as a variable name in python 2 is like using list as a variable name. It is not an error, but it could be annoying to the programmer because it hides the built-in name. For python >= 2.7, the list of reserved words is available as

import keyword
print(keyword.kwlist)

[snippsat]

Hey ... sorry I missed that ... is that why you 'down-voted' ?

It was not me as downvoted you :)

[David W]

Hey ... sorry I missed that ... is that why you 'down-voted' ?

It was not me as downvoted you :)

Sorry ...

anyways ... it's good to hear @Gribouillis, Dani's 'Posting Maven' :)

[Jolie Tia]

Hey everyone,

Thank you so much for your input. The path for the file on my mac is correct. I even checked it by dragging the file into a terminal window to see the exact path. It just doesnt work on it. I tried the code on my virtual machine for windows and it worked perfectly. Thank you everyone again. This site is so helpful. Especially for us who are beginning programmers.