How to alter multiple text files using a python script - python

I'm trying to alter multiple text files using a python scrip but I'm getting, not all, but some empty files as output. How to solve this?
def tratador_arquivo(arquivo):
with open(arquivo, 'r+',encoding="utf8") as inputtext:
for ponto in inputtext:
saida="saida_"+arquivo
with open(saida, 'w') as saidatemp:
saidatemp.write(ponto.replace('. ','.\n'))
import os
pasta = os.listdir('/Users/gabri/Desktop/Textos Imóveis')
os.chdir('/Users/gabri/Desktop/Textos Imóveis')
for arquivo in pasta:
tratador_arquivo(arquivo)

Expanding abarnert's answer, you may get the whole code as follows:
def tratador_arquivo(arquivo):
saida = "saida_" + arquivo
with open(arquivo, 'r+',encoding="utf8") as inputtext, open(saida, 'w') as saidatemp:
for ponto in inputtext:
saidatemp.write(ponto.replace('. ', '.\n'))
Also mind the indentation error of the function content in the code you provided.

Look at your loop:
for ponto in inputtext:
saida="saida_"+arquivo
with open(saida, 'w') as saidatemp:
saidatemp.write(ponto.replace('. ','.\n'))
This re-opens the same file over and over, once for each line of the input file. Since you open it in w mode, that truncates the file, erasing whatever you'd previously written there, and replaces it with just the (transformed) newest line. So, at the end of the loop, your output file only has the (transformed) last line of the input file.
This is probably always wrong (although it's hard to say that for sure when I don't know what exactly you're trying to do). But in cases where the input file ends with a blank line, it will be especially obvious that it's wrong, because the only thing in the output file will be that blank line.
What you probably want to do is this:
saida="saida_"+arquivo
with open(saida, 'w') as saidatemp:
for ponto in inputtext:
saidatemp.write(ponto.replace('. ','.\n'))
In other words, just open the file once, and keep writing new lines to it.

Related

Python writing data to file only works when run from console

If I run
file = open("BAL.txt","w")
I = '200'
file.write(I)
file.close
from a script, it outputs nothing in the file. (It literally overwrites the file with nothing)
Furthermore, running cat BAL.txt just goes to the next line like nothing is in the file.
But if I run it line by line in a python console it works perfectly fine.
Why does this happen. ( I am a begginner learning python the mistake may be super obvious. I have thrown about 2 hours into trying to figure this out)
Thanks in advance
You aren't closing your file properly. To close it you are missing the () at the end of file.close so it should look like this:
file = open("BAL.txt", "w")
file.write("This has been written to a file")
file.close()
This site has the same example and may be of some use to you.
Another way, especially useful when you are appending multiple values into a single file is to use something like with open("BAL.txt","w") as file:. Here is your script rewritten to include this example:
I = '200'
with open("BAL.txt","w") as file:
file.write(I)
This opens our file with the value file and allows us to write values to it. Also note that file.close() is not needed here and when appending text w+ needs to be used.
to write to a file you do this:
file = open("file.txt","w")
file.write("something")
file.close()
when you use file.write() it deletes all of the contents of the file, if you want to write to the end of the file do this:
file = open("file.text","w+")
file.write(file.read()+"something")
file.close()
There are other ways to do this but this one is the most intuitive (not the most efficient), also the other way tends to be buggy so there is no reason to post it because this is reliable.
Firstly, you're missing the parentheses when you're closing the file. Secondly, writing to a file should be done like this:
file = open("BAL.txt", "w")
file.write("This has been written to a file")
file.close()
Let me know if you have any questions.

Read() function erases text in file [duplicate]

Started Python a week ago and I have some questions to ask about reading and writing to the same files. I've gone through some tutorials online but I am still confused about it. I can understand simple read and write files.
openFile = open("filepath", "r")
readFile = openFile.read()
print readFile
openFile = open("filepath", "a")
appendFile = openFile.write("\nTest 123")
openFile.close()
But, if I try the following I get a bunch of unknown text in the text file I am writing to. Can anyone explain why I am getting such errors and why I cannot use the same openFile object the way shown below.
# I get an error when I use the codes below:
openFile = open("filepath", "r+")
writeFile = openFile.write("Test abc")
readFile = openFile.read()
print readFile
openFile.close()
I will try to clarify my problems. In the example above, openFile is the object used to open file. I have no problems if I want write to it the first time. If I want to use the same openFile to read files or append something to it. It doesn't happen or an error is given. I have to declare the same/different open file object before I can perform another read/write action to the same file.
#I have no problems if I do this:
openFile = open("filepath", "r+")
writeFile = openFile.write("Test abc")
openFile2 = open("filepath", "r+")
readFile = openFile2.read()
print readFile
openFile.close()
I will be grateful if anyone can tell me what I did wrong here or is it just a Pythong thing. I am using Python 2.7. Thanks!
Updated Response:
This seems like a bug specific to Windows - http://bugs.python.org/issue1521491.
Quoting from the workaround explained at http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-bugs-list/2005-August/029886.html
the effect of mixing reads with writes on a file open for update is
entirely undefined unless a file-positioning operation occurs between
them (for example, a seek()). I can't guess what
you expect to happen, but seems most likely that what you
intend could be obtained reliably by inserting
fp.seek(fp.tell())
between read() and your write().
My original response demonstrates how reading/writing on the same file opened for appending works. It is apparently not true if you are using Windows.
Original Response:
In 'r+' mode, using write method will write the string object to the file based on where the pointer is. In your case, it will append the string "Test abc" to the start of the file. See an example below:
>>> f=open("a","r+")
>>> f.read()
'Test abc\nfasdfafasdfa\nsdfgsd\n'
>>> f.write("foooooooooooooo")
>>> f.close()
>>> f=open("a","r+")
>>> f.read()
'Test abc\nfasdfafasdfa\nsdfgsd\nfoooooooooooooo'
The string "foooooooooooooo" got appended at the end of the file since the pointer was already at the end of the file.
Are you on a system that differentiates between binary and text files? You might want to use 'rb+' as a mode in that case.
Append 'b' to the mode to open the file in binary mode, on systems
that differentiate between binary and text files; on systems that
don’t have this distinction, adding the 'b' has no effect.
http://docs.python.org/2/library/functions.html#open
Every open file has an implicit pointer which indicates where data will be read and written. Normally this defaults to the start of the file, but if you use a mode of a (append) then it defaults to the end of the file. It's also worth noting that the w mode will truncate your file (i.e. delete all the contents) even if you add + to the mode.
Whenever you read or write N characters, the read/write pointer will move forward that amount within the file. I find it helps to think of this like an old cassette tape, if you remember those. So, if you executed the following code:
fd = open("testfile.txt", "w+")
fd.write("This is a test file.\n")
fd.close()
fd = open("testfile.txt", "r+")
print fd.read(4)
fd.write(" IS")
fd.close()
... It should end up printing This and then leaving the file content as This IS a test file.. This is because the initial read(4) returns the first 4 characters of the file, because the pointer is at the start of the file. It leaves the pointer at the space character just after This, so the following write(" IS") overwrites the next three characters with a space (the same as is already there) followed by IS, replacing the existing is.
You can use the seek() method of the file to jump to a specific point. After the example above, if you executed the following:
fd = open("testfile.txt", "r+")
fd.seek(10)
fd.write("TEST")
fd.close()
... Then you'll find that the file now contains This IS a TEST file..
All this applies on Unix systems, and you can test those examples to make sure. However, I've had problems mixing read() and write() on Windows systems. For example, when I execute that first example on my Windows machine then it correctly prints This, but when I check the file afterwards the write() has been completely ignored. However, the second example (using seek()) seems to work fine on Windows.
In summary, if you want to read/write from the middle of a file in Windows I'd suggest always using an explicit seek() instead of relying on the position of the read/write pointer. If you're doing only reads or only writes then it's pretty safe.
One final point - if you're specifying paths on Windows as literal strings, remember to escape your backslashes:
fd = open("C:\\Users\\johndoe\\Desktop\\testfile.txt", "r+")
Or you can use raw strings by putting an r at the start:
fd = open(r"C:\Users\johndoe\Desktop\testfile.txt", "r+")
Or the most portable option is to use os.path.join():
fd = open(os.path.join("C:\\", "Users", "johndoe", "Desktop", "testfile.txt"), "r+")
You can find more information about file IO in the official Python docs.
Reading and Writing happens where the current file pointer is and it advances with each read/write.
In your particular case, writing to the openFile, causes the file-pointer to point to the end of file. Trying to read from the end would result EOF.
You need to reset the file pointer, to point to the beginning of the file before through seek(0) before reading from it
You can read, modify and save to the same file in python but you have actually to replace the whole content in file, and to call before updating file content:
# set the pointer to the beginning of the file in order to rewrite the content
edit_file.seek(0)
I needed a function to go through all subdirectories of folder and edit content of the files based on some criteria, if it helps:
new_file_content = ""
for directories, subdirectories, files in os.walk(folder_path):
for file_name in files:
file_path = os.path.join(directories, file_name)
# open file for reading and writing
with io.open(file_path, "r+", encoding="utf-8") as edit_file:
for current_line in edit_file:
if condition in current_line:
# update current line
current_line = current_line.replace('john', 'jack')
new_file_content += current_line
# set the pointer to the beginning of the file in order to rewrite the content
edit_file.seek(0)
# delete actual file content
edit_file.truncate()
# rewrite updated file content
edit_file.write(new_file_content)
# empties new content in order to set for next iteration
new_file_content = ""
edit_file.close()

Replace string in specific line of nonstandard text file

Similar to posting: Replace string in a specific line using python, however results were not forethcomming in my slightly different instance.
I working with python 3 on windows 7. I am attempting to batch edit some files in a directory. They are basically text files with .LIC tag. I'm not sure if that is relevant to my issue here. I am able to read the file into python without issue.
My aim is to replace a specific string on a specific line in this file.
import os
import re
groupname = 'Oldtext'
aliasname = 'Newtext'
with open('filename') as f:
data = f.readlines()
data[1] = re.sub(groupname,aliasname, data[1])
f.writelines(data[1])
print(data[1])
print('done')
When running the above code I get an UnsupportedOperation: not writable. I am having some issue writing the changes back to the file. Based on suggestion of other posts, I edited added the w option to the open('filename', "w") function. This causes all text in the file to be deleted.
Based on suggestion, the r+ option was tried. This leads to successful editing of the file, however, instead of editing the correct line, the edited line is appended to the end of the file, leaving the original intact.
Writing a changed line into the middle of a text file is not going to work unless it's exactly the same length as the original - which is the case in your example, but you've got some obvious placeholder text there so I have no idea if the same is true of your actual application code. Here's an approach that doesn't make any such assumption:
with open('filename', 'r') as f:
data = f.readlines()
data[1] = re.sub(groupname,aliasname, data[1])
with open('filename', 'w') as f:
f.writelines(data)
EDIT: If you really wanted to write only the single line back into the file, you'd need to use f.tell() BEFORE reading the line, to remember its position within the file, and then f.seek() to go back to that position before writing.

Python CSV seek not working?

file_handle = open("/var/www/transactions.csv", "a")
c = csv.writer(file_handle);
oldamount = amount / 1.98
file_handle.seek(0);
c.writerow( [addre, oldamount, "win"])
Here is my code
I wish to write [addre, oldamount, "win"]) to the start of my CSV file, however it's not working. It's still going to the bottom.
You are opening the file in append ("a") mode. The documentation for open() points out this behavior explicitly: "all writes append to the end of the file regardless of the current seek position".
It isn't possible to "just insert" text at the beginning of a file like you want to. You can either read the whole file, add your data in the front, and write it back out, or you live with the fact that the data goes at the end.
Example for rewriting:
with open("/var/www/transactions.csv", "r+") as f:
olddata = f.read()
f.seek(0)
c = csv.writer(f);
c.writerow([addre, oldamount, "win"])
f.write(olddata)
Note that this can corrupt your file if something goes wrong while writing. If you want to minimize that possibility, write to a new file, then os.rename() it to overwrite the old one.

Reading and writing files python

I am trying to write three separate line in a text document based on input obtained from a dialogue window. I am sure this is a simple fix but I can't seem to write the three lines as separate lines. Would someone mind telling me what's wrong with this bit of code?
file = open('file.txt', 'wb')
file.write('input1')
file.write('input2')
file.write('input3')
The inputs should be on different lines but instead they come out as:
input1input2input3
Instead of:
input1
input2
input3
Try this:
file = open('file.txt', 'wb')
file.write('input1\n')
file.write('input2\n')
file.write('input3\n')
You are appending the newline character '\n' to advance to the next line.
If you use the with construct, it will automatically close the file for you:
with open('file.txt', 'wb') as file:
file.write('input1\n')
file.write('input2\n')
file.write('input3\n')
Also, consider using a different variable name in place of file.
Your issue is that you haven't included newlines. Remember, Python is outputting like a typewriter--you don't tell it to go to a new line, it won't. The way to write a newline is \n.
So,
file.write('\n'.join([input1, input2, input3]))
Would do it.

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