Develop Reference

Accessing Values from Text Dictionary

I am trying to create a "This is Your New Name Generator" program. I am doing this by asking the user for their first and last name. The program then takes the first letter of their first name, and the last letter of the their last name, and pulls from two text files to give their new first and last name.
I've gotten as far as getting the user's first and last name, and pulling information from a file, however it always gives me the last line of the file.
I thought I could setup the files like dictionaries and then use the user's input as keys, but it doesn't seem to be working.
Any advice?
firstName = input("What is your first Name? ")
lastName = input("What is your last Name? ")
fN = firstName[0].lower()
lN_len = len(lastName) -1
lN = lastName[lN_len]
fNdict = {}
with open('firstName.txt') as f:
for line in f:
(fN, fNval) = line.split(",")
fNdict[fN] = fNval
lNdict = {}
with open('lastName.txt') as fileobj:
for line in fileobj:
lNkey, lNvalue = line.split(",")
lNdict[lN] = lNvalue
newFirstName = fNval
newLastName = lNvalue
print("Your zombie Name is: %s %s "%(newFirstName,newLastName))
Reference Image:

When you run these lines:
newFirstName = fNval
newLastName = lNvalue
fNval and lNvalue have the last values they had in their respective loops. I think you mean to use the user's first and last names as keys to the dictionaries, e.g.
newFirstName = fNdict[fN]
newLastName = lNdict[lN]
Note that this will fail if fN and lN aren't in the dictionaries. You might want to create defaultdicts instead.
Note also that Python has an official style guide that most Python developers follow. Please consider reading it and writing your code accordingly. The code you've shared is very hard to read.

You could follow a slightly different implementation to achieve the same result.
Create two python dictionaries with all the associations letters - first names and letter - last names.
Write them in a file using json. This file will substitute yours firstName.txt and lastName.txt
This should be done only once to create the file with the names.
Then your name generator is a script which:
Loads those two dictionaries.
Ask the user for an input to obtain the keys.
Retrieve the names from the dictionaries using the user input.
The first two points are implemented in this way:
import json
#these are just brief examples, provide complete dictionaries.
firstnames = {"A": "Crafty", "B": "Brainy"}
lastnames = {"A": "Decapitator", "B": "McBrains"}
with open("fullnames.txt", "w") as ff:
json.dump(firstnames, ff)
ff.write('\n')
json.dump(lastnames, ff)
This would be a script to generate the file with the names.
The name generator would be:
import json
with open("fullnames.txt", "r") as ff:
ll = ff.readlines()
firstnames = json.loads(ll[0].strip())
lastnames = json.loads(ll[1].strip())
inputfirst = input("What is your first Name? ")
inputlast = input("What is your last Name? ")
fn = inputfirst[0].upper()
ln = inputlast[-1].upper() #negative indexes start from the last element of the iterable, so -1 would be the last.
print("Your zombie Name is: {} {} ".format(firstnames[fn], lastnames[ln])) #using string format method, better that the old %

Extract specific portion of a text file in python 3.x

How do I make the if statement to read from a specific location of a text file and stop at a specific point and then print it out. for example, printing out one patient's data, not all the list. beginner programmer here. thank you
ID = input("please enter a refernce id to search for the patient : ")
info = open("data.txt", 'r')
if ID in info:
# This should return only one patient's information not all the text file
else:
print("not in file")
info.close()

We would need to know the specific details of how the file is formatted to give an exact answer, but here is one way that may be helpful.
Firstly, your 'info' is right now just a TextIOWrapper object. You can tell by running print(type(info)). You need to make it info = open('data.txt', 'r').read() to give you a string of the text, or info = open('data.txt', 'r').readlines() to give you a list of the text by line, if the format is just plain text.
Assuming the data looks something like this:
Patient: Charlie
Age = 99
Description: blah blah blah
Patient: Judith
Age: 100
Description: blah blah blahs
You can do the following:
First, find and store the index of the ID you are looking for. Secondly, find and store the index of some string that denotes a new ID. In this case, that's the word 'Patient'. Lastly, return the string between those two indices.
Example:
ID = input("please enter a reference id to search for the patient: ")
info = open("data.txt", 'r').read()
if ID in info:
#find() returns the beginning index of a string
f = info.find(ID)
goods = info[f:]
l = goods.find('Patient')
goods = goods[:l]
print(goods)
else:
print("not in file")
Something along those lines should do the trick. There are probably better ways depending on the structure of the file. Things can go wrong if the user input is not specific enough, or the word patient is scattered in the descriptions, but the idea remains the same. You should do some error handling for the input, as well. I hope that helps! Good luck with your project.

How to read off of a specific line in a text file using python

Looking to have my code read one text file and store the line number of a user input as num and then use the variable num to read the same line on another file.
currently, the code for the first step of reading the first text file is working and has been tested but the second part doesn't display anything after being executed. I have changed multiple things but am still stuck. Help would be much appreciated.
here is my code:
print("Check Stock")
ca = input("Check all barcodes?")
if ca == "y":
for x in range(0,5):
with open ("stockbarcodes.txt") as f:
linesa = f.readlines()
print(linesa[x])
with open ("stockname.txt") as f:
linesb = f.readlines()
print(linesb[x])
print(" ")
else:
bc = input("Scan barcode: ")
f1 = open ("stockname.txt")
for num, line in enumerate(f1, 1):
if bc in line:
linesba = f1.readlines()
print(linesba[num])

As user Ikriemer points, it seems that you want to retrieve the stock name based on the barcode. For that kind of task you rather create a normalized Data Base, which discribes Entities, Properties and relationships. As you can se here there are a lot of things to take into account.
This code was tested on Mac OS, but considering OP's comment (who seems to be using windows), it is ok if the dtype is not specified.
Considering that the above solution may not be as quick as you like, you also have two options.
First option
As I can not check the content of your example files, the strategy that you show in your code makes me believe that your assuming both files are ordered, in a way that first line of the barcode file corresponds to first item in the stock name file. Given that, you can query the index of an element (barcode) in an array like data structure, and retrieve the element of another array (name) stored in the same position. Code below:
import numpy as np
print("Check Stock")
ca = input("Check all barcodes? (y/n): ")
if ca == "y":
for x in range(0, 5):
with open("stockbarcodes.txt") as f:
linesa = f.readlines()
print(linesa[x], sep="")
with open("stockname.txt") as f:
linesb = f.readlines()
print(linesb[x], sep="")
print(" ")
else:
try:
codes = np.genfromtxt("stockbarcodes.txt").tolist()
names = np.genfromtxt("stockname.txt", dtype=np.str).tolist()
bc = input("Scan barcode: ")
index = codes.index(int(bc))
print(names[index])
except IndexError:
print("Bar code {} not found".format(bc))
Second option
This option could be considered a workaround method to a data base like file. You need to store your data in some way that you can search the values associated with an specific entry. Such kind of tasks could be done with a dictionary. Just replace the else clause with this:
else:
try:
codes = np.genfromtxt("stockbarcodes.txt").tolist()
names = np.genfromtxt("stockname.txt", dtype=np.str).tolist()
table = {k: v for k, v in zip(codes, names)}
bc = input("Scan barcode: ")
print(table[int(bc)])
except KeyError:
print("Bar code {} not found".format(bc))
Again, in the dictionary comprehension we are assuming both files are ordered. I strongly suggest you to validate this assumption, to warranty that the first bar code corresponds to the first stock, second to second, and so on. Only after that, you may like to store the dictionary as a file, so you can load it and query it as you please. Check this answer fot that purpose.

How to check if the input has already been entered into a txt file

I have written code that creates a text file (if it doesn't exist) and asks you to input a name and an age to record peoples names and ages. I would like to add an elif into my code so that I can update peoples ages.
For example if a text file held the name Paul and their age was 46 and I typed in Paul when asked to input a name, I'd like it to just ask for an updated age.
Here is my attempt that simply doesn't work.
Code:
while True:
family=open("FamilyAges.txt",'a+')
familyR=open("FamilyAges.txt",'r')
line1= familyR.readlines(1)
name = input('Enter name of person : ')
if name == 'end':
break
elif name == line1:
print('test')
else:
age = input('Enter age of person : ')
family.write((name)+' '+(age)+'\n')
family.close()
Text File:
Paul 46
Sarah 46

The best solution is to read all the file, keep it in memory using a dict then update the dict every time you add a name.
When you decide to stop (input 'end') overwrite the file with the new values in the dict

The following solves your immediate problem with the code you posted, however for the goal you described you should think about: This code only checks the first line of your file but you want to check if the name is anywhere in the file.
readlines(1) returns a list with one element (the first line). So what you need is:
while True:
family=open("FamilyAges.txt",'a+')
familyR=open("FamilyAges.txt",'r')
line1= familyR.readlines(1)
name = input('Enter name of person : ')
if name == 'end':
break
elif name in line1[0]:
print('test')
else:
age = input('Enter age of person : ')
family.write((name)+' '+(age)+'\n')
family.close()
Note the line1[0] and the name in line1[0] (you need this because your line contains not only the name but additional text).

A bit longer then Joe's solution, but I like functions more. I did not correct your code, because certain parts were missing - rewriting seemed a better option keeping to stuff you did use.
After gianluca answer "what" to do I implemented an example of that for you.
I use the with open(...) as f: instead of your type of file reading as it automatically will close/flush/dispose of the filehandle when leaving the following block. Its the recommed way to operate with files. Dictionariesis a data structure for fast key/value access and better suited to your problem then simple strings.
See also reading-and-writing-files
Reading the whole file
input loop until done, modifying the dict
then (if needed) saving it.
Breaking up funcionality into funcitons is that have a limited scope and are easier to understand helps keep the code cleaner.
def readFile(fn):
"""Read the file given as by filename fn.
Expected format:
one key:value per line, key being a name, value a string as age.
Returns a dictionary of the parsed contents key:value if no
errors occure. Returs False on IOError or FileNotFoundError"""
try:
with open(fn,"r") as f:
lines = f.read().split("\n") # read all, split at linebreaks
print(lines) # debugging output
rv = {}
for l in lines: # parse all lines
item =l.split(":",2) # split each
if item is not None and len(item)==2: # must be 2 parts
rv[item[0]] = item[1] # put key/valu into dict
return rv # return dict
except IOError:
return False # error - return false
except FileNotFoundError:
pass # error - no file, thats ok
return {} # no file found, return empty dict
def saveFile(fn,famil):
"""Saves a dictionary famil as filename fn.
Produced format:
one key:value per line, key being a name, value a string as age.
Overwrites existing file of same name with new contents."""
with open(fn,"w+") as f:
for i in famil: # for all keys in dict
f.write(i + ":" + famil[i] + "\n") # write file
fileName = "FamilyAges.txt" # consistent filename
family = readFile(fileName) # read it
if not isinstance(family,dict): # check if no error, if error, print msg & quit
print("Error reading file")
else: # we got a dict
print(family) # print it
gotInput = False # remember for later if we need to save new data
while True: # loop until name input is "end"
name = input('Enter name of person : ') # input name
if name == 'end': # check break condition
break
else:
age = input('Enter age of person : ') # input age as string, no validation
family[name] = age # store in dictionary
gotInput = True # this will "alter" existing
# ages for existing names
if (gotInput): # if input happened, save data to file
saveFile(fileName, family)
print(family) # print dict before end

The steps:
if the file exists (could use try...except or os.path):
Create a dictionary of name: age pairs of people already in there
else:
Create an empty dictionary
begin a loop
input name
if name == "end" break out of loop
input age
set name entry in the dictionary to age (will override if not already set)
continue looping
open the file again, but in write ("w") mode so it is blanked
loop through each person in the dictionary (old and new)
write to the file their name and age (separated by a space) and then a new-line
Here's what that looks like:
try:
d = {n:a for n, a in (l.split() for l in open("FamilyAges.txt").readlines())}
except FileNotFoundError:
d = {}
while True:
name = input("name: ")
if name == "end":
break #will escape loop here, so no need for `elif`s
age = input("age: ") #no need to convert to an integer as noo calculations
d[name] = age
with open("FamilyAges.txt", "w") as f:
for person in d.items():
f.write(" ".join(person) + "\n")
And it works!
$ python t.py
name: bob
age: 23
name: cat
age: 98
name: end
$ cat FamilyAges.txt
bob 23
cat 98
$ python t.py
name: bob
age: 67
name: fish
age: 10
name: end
$ cat FamilyAges.txt
bob 67
cat 98
fish 10

Python: Writing peoples scores to individual lines

I have a task where I need to record peoples scores in a text file. My Idea was to set it out like this:
Jon: 4, 1, 3
Simon: 1, 3, 6
This has the name they inputted along with their 3 last scores (Only 3 should be recorded).
Now for my question; Can anyone point me in the right direction to do this? Im not asking for you to write my code for me, Im simply asking for some tips.
Thanks.
Edit: Im guessing it would look something like this: I dont know how I'd add scores after their first though like above.
def File():
score = str(Name) + ": " + str(correct)
File = open('Test.txt', 'w+')
File.write(score)
File.close()
Name = input("Name: ")
correct = input("Number: ")
File()

You could use pandas to_csv() function and store your data in a dictionary. It will be much easier than creating your own format.
from pandas import DataFrame, read_csv
import pandas as pd
def tfile(names):
df = DataFrame(data = names, columns = names.keys())
with open('directory','w') as f:
f.write(df.to_string(index=False, header=True))
names = {}
for i in xrange(num_people):
name = input('Name: ')
if name not in names:
names[name] = []
for j in xrange(3):
score = input('Score: ')
names[name].append(score)
tfile(names)
Simon Jon
1 4
3 1
6 3
This should meet your text requirement now. It converts it to a string and then writes the string to the .txt file. If you need to read it back in you can use pandas read_table(). Here's a link if you want to read about it.

Since you are not asking for the exact code, here is an idea and some pointers
Collect the last three scores per person in a list variable called last_three
do something like:
",".join(last_three) #this gives you the format 4,1,3 etc
write to file an entry such as
name + ":" + ",".join(last_three)
You'll need to do this for each "line" you process
I'd recommend using with clause to open the file in write mode and process your data (as opposed to just an "open" clause) since with handles try/except/finally problems of opening/closing file handles...So...
with open(my_file_path, "w") as f:
for x in my_formatted_data:
#assuming x is a list of two elements name and last_three elems (example: [Harry, [1,4,5]])
name, last_three = x
f.write(name + ":" + ",".join(last_three))
f.write("\n")# a new line
In this way you don't really need to open/close file as with clause takes care of it for you