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November 15th, 2004, 04:31 AM

NewPythoner

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IndexError

Hi,
Can someone find the bug in this code!

Code:

>>> strLine='#'
>>> dict={}
>>> fin=open('c:\\python23\\scripts\\','r')
>>> while strLine!='':
... 		strLine=fin.readline()
... 		if ''!=strLine:
... 			z=strLine.split('||')
... 			strKey=z[0]
... 			strValue=z[1][:-1]
... 			dict[strKey]=strValue
... 		else:raise IndexError

The error that I get is

Code:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<interactive input>", line 6, in ?
IndexError: list index out of range

Can anyone spot the error?????

Many thanks,
Subha

November 15th, 2004, 05:34 AM

Grim Archon

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yes, on line 6 you assume split produces what you want and don't handle when z has len == 1. That's what your traceback reported

Code:

>>> a = "hello".split("x")
>>> a
['hello']
>>> a = "hellox".split("x")
>>> a
['hello', '']
>>>

grimey

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Last edited by Grim Archon : November 15th, 2004 at 05:43 AM.

November 15th, 2004, 05:46 AM

sfb

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I'll try

Code:

>>> dict={}

This rebinds the builtin function "dict"...

Code:

>>> fin=open('c:\\python23\\scripts\\','r')

This seems to be trying to open a directory as if it was a file

- I'd expect you to get an IOError here.

Code:

>>> while strLine!='':

This could be written as "while strLine:" because an empty string is evaluates as "False" for these kinds of tests, but it's just for ease of reading, and not really a problem.

Code:

... 		if ''!=strLine:

The same here with "if not strLine:"

Code:

... 			z=strLine.split('||')
... 			strKey=z[0]
... 			strValue=z[1][:-1]

Somewhere in here, strLine probably doesn't split into two pieces, so z[1] will not exist. At the start of the program, you say "strLine = '#'", then doing a split('||') will result in a single-item list, for instance.

You might want error checking here, or you might want to check the file you are reading for blank lines, etc.

Code:

... 			strValue=z[1][:-1]

This... well, have you tried it? It returns an empty string all the time, which is probably not what you want.

It takes the list z, then takes the single item at index 1.
Then, from that, it removes the last item from the string.

Code:

... 			dict[strKey]=strValue
... 		else:raise IndexError

Here, you are saying:
"While the line is not blank:
Read a line from the file
if the line is blank raise an IndexError
"

Which seems like a strange error to raise...

It looks like you are reading a file like this:

Code:

key1||value1
key2||value2

So you could try something like:

Code:

mydict = {}
fin = file('c:\\python23\\myfile.txt', 'rb')

for line in fin:
    if line:
        key, value = line.split('||')
        mydict[key] = value

Or, if the file might have some lines in the wrong format that you want to ignore, this might be more useful:

Code:

mydict = {}
fin = file('c:\\python23\\myfile.txt', 'rb')

for line in fin:
    if line:
        try:
            key, value = line.split('||')
            mydict[key] = value

        except ValueError:
            print "This line is not in the right format:"
            print line
            print

November 15th, 2004, 05:49 AM

Grim Archon

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.... plus all the errors sfb mentioned

November 15th, 2004, 05:57 AM

Grim Archon

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Code:

fin=open('c:\\python23\\scripts\\','r')

Can't see how you managed to enter this without getting an exception!

November 15th, 2004, 06:15 AM

NewPythoner

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Nooooooo that wasn't an error of the filename....a typo maybe.... I forgot to add the filename ...while typing in the query...I didn't paste the that particular file opening line .... and so I didn't receive any error there....thanks both of u....let me see if things work fine....

Thanks,
Subha

November 15th, 2004, 06:24 AM

Grim Archon

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As you now know it is more helpful to you and us if you post real code, there is no point making up stuff by pasting it together.

grimey

November 15th, 2004, 06:28 AM

NewPythoner

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Always post the real code....this time I guess was being too smart...anyway....I'll keep ur sarcastic statement in mind!!!!

Thanks,
Subha

November 15th, 2004, 06:32 AM

Grim Archon

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#10

November 15th, 2004, 07:00 AM

netytan

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Yet another version

Code:

#!/usr/bin/env python

matrix = {}

for line in file('C:\Python23\myfile.txt'):
    if '||' in line:
        key, value = line.split('||')
        matrix[key] = value

This time, I do a simple check to see if the '||' characters are in line - so the split should go ahead without a glitch. If we can't split (because the '||' characters can't be found) then it just ignores the line.

Simple enough,

Mark.

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#11

November 15th, 2004, 07:13 AM

NewPythoner

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Thanks sfb....my problem is solved...thanks for the beautiful explanation!

Subha

#12

November 15th, 2004, 11:44 PM

NewPythoner

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Thanks Mark .... you've reduced the lines of code drastically...and yes readable too

....thats great!

Subha

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