how to check if any program is running in windows using python - python

I would like to use win32 in python to create 2 functions... 1. A function that checks if a certain application is running. 2. A function that checks if an application is installed...
I have tried the following to check if something is running;
def IsRunning(ProgramName):
if win32ui.FindWindow(None, ProgramName):
print("its running")
return True
else:
print("its not running!")
but the findwindow always throws an error if the program is not running before my program ever gets to the else statement and I do not know how to bypass that....

I needed to pass it like this;
def IsRunning(WindowName):
try:
if win32ui.FindWindow(None, WindowName):
print("its running")
return True
except win32ui.error:
print("its not running!")
return False
You need to put the window title exactly for it to pass the test and return True...
The next thing I want to write is a similar function that uses regular expressions to find any part of a title name...
Brilliant!!! Happy now :)
The only thing with this, is that if the Applications creator decides to change the title of the main window of the program you are trying to test for, it will no longer work... I was hoping for a much more robust way of doing it... i.e. through some kind of unique process code!
in any case this will do for the time being, but if anyone has a more definitive answer please let me know...

Related

IDLE does not Run Module

New here and very novice in Python. I have a question about Python.
At my workplace, I have some trainings with PL/SQL, where our first task was create RPN calculator. Because I'm not that good in PL/SQL and syntax of that language is strange in my opinion, I made it in Python.
Everything worked smoothly, until a time when I was asked to create function to check if string of values are RPN. Just before that, I made simple program to check if entered values match with those in dictionary, but I stopped to Run.
AcceptedChars = ["0","1","2","3","4","5","6","7","8","9","+","-","/","*"," "]
def checking_for_rpn():
checking = str(input("Enter values for check: "))
for AcceptedCharsCheck in checking:
if not(AcceptedCharsCheck in AcceptedChars):
print("False")
return False
print("Ok")
return True
Then, I added some crazy codes from web for checking RPN and that's fricked my code.
Now, I canot run it by Run Module. Shell displays standard view when it's ready.

python try statement or if statement

Hello everyone I have my code almost done but I'm trying to add in some sort of check to avoid errors. But I'm not really understanding what statement would be better to use to test the code. I know there are a few options of either using a loop, if-statement, or try. But here is the code in regards to doing captcha. I need it to run the first set of code which if the captcha doesn't pop up I continue on. But if the captcha does pop up solve it then continue on.
Some times captcha doesnt appear and if I run the whole set of code I get an error because we are expecting captcha to pop up.
Or if the captcha does appear to solve it which would.
I would really appreciate any help please as I'm not sure the right statement to use.
try should be used when something would return an error and would otherwise cause your program to stop/crash. An example of this would be:
try:
import pandas
except:
print("Unable to import pandas. Module not installed")
In this example your program will attempt to import the pandas module. If this fails it will then print out a line of text and continue running.
if statements are used to decided when to do something or not based on the returned logic. The key difference is that logic IS returned and not an error.
if x > 10:
print("This is a large number")
else:
print("This is a small number")
With this example, if 'x' did not exist it would produce an error, no more code will be executed, and the program will crash. The main difference between IF and TRY is whether logic is returned as true/false or is something just plains fails.
With your specific example it is important to know if the captcha appearing or not will break your code. Does the logic boil down to captcha = false or does captcha not exist at all and logic fails entirely?
Q: How do you define sometimes captcha doesn't appear (1%, 20%, 50%, ...)?
A: Maybe 5% of the time captcha doesn't appear.
In this case, I prefer to use Exception handling: do stuff and if something goes wrong, fix it
try:
# > 95% of the time the code below works when the captcha appears
except SomeException:
# < 5% of the time the code is called when the captcha doesn't appear
IMHO, you have not really 2 different codes: you have one and a fallback solution, it's really different than:
if x % 2:
...
else:
...

Passing variables between functions in Python, then back to menu

Slowly progressing with my learning with Python and would love a little hand with some code I've tried to create.
I previously had this program running with Global Variables to get a proof of concept to learn about passing variables between functions. Fully worked fine. However, rather than running the function and returning to the menu, it will just stop where I return the value and not progress back to the main menu I created. It is at the point of "return AirportDetailsGlobal".
I'm sure its a simple one, and as said - still learning!
Really appreciate any help on this!
Full code is on pastebin for further reference - pastebin 89VqfwFV
print("\nEnter airport code for overseas")
osCode = input()
airports = airData
for line in airports:
if osCode in line:
print (osCode, "Found\n\n")
print("Airport Name:",line[1])
OverseaCodeGlobal = osCode
x = int(line[2])
AirDataGlobal = x #changed here
return AirportDetailsGlobal
break
else:
print('Incorrect Choice')
menu()
menu()
If you do a return then your code goes back to where it was called from. If it wasn't called from anywhere (ie. you just ran that script directly) then calling return is in most ways equivalent to calling sys.exit(), ie. the program terminates. It'll never hit your break, leave the loop, or hit your call to menu().
Also, your indentation as given there isn't right, the else is at the same level as the for, not the if. I don't think that's the problem but you might hit it next. ;-)

Can I continue an IF-ELSE statement through a function?

def you ():
gi=input("what up")
if gi in ["Nothing much", "nothing much", "nothing"]:
print("cool")
you()
elif gi in ["stuff"]:
print("sounds good")
I apparently cannot do this, however In a bigger program I am working on, I have a function that is used twice, however based of the user input, different results happen, so I tried to include my large function, and like the above program have an if else be continued throughout the function, because there are different options for user input, based on where the person is in the program.
I am just trying to figure out a good way to run a game, where the beginning is the same (function), however the game can progress in different ways, therefore a function won't work for all of it, so I just want to know if I can have an if else statement run through a function like in the small example above?
As James already said, no you cannot continue an if statement outside of a function. Referring to your question if functions are useful in a larger program: yes they are. You can use data generated in functions in your main program or other functions by returning your results. For instance:
def you ():
gi=input("what up")
return gi
result = you()
if result in ["Nothing much", "nothing much", "nothing"]:
print("cool")
elif result in ["stuff"]:
print("sounds good")

Google Wave Robot / Python Variable question

I'm experimenting/having a little fun with wave robot python apiv2.
I made a little 8ball app for the robot which works fine, and now I'm trying to make a trivia app.
I've never programmed in Python but I'm pretty sure my syntax is correct. Here is the relevant code:
elif (bliptxt == "\n!strivia"):
reply = blip.reply()
if (triviaStatus != "playing"):
reply.append("Trivia Started!")
triviaStatus = "playing"
else:
reply.append("Trivia is already running!")
elif (bliptxt == "\n!etrivia"):
reply = blip.reply()
if (triviaStatus == "playing"):
reply.append("Trivia Ended!")
triviaStatus = "stopped"
else:
reply.append("Trivia is not running! To start trivia, type !strivia")
else: (snipped out)
Okay so basically I want it to work so that when someone blips "strivia" the bot recognizes that someone wants to play so it first checks a variable called triviaStatus to see if we are already playing and goes from there. Pretty simple stuff.
In order for this to work (and, actually, this code is really meant to test this question out) the variables would need to effectively be like the php $_SESSION variables - that is, it remembers the value of the variable every time someone blips and does not reset each time.
Nevertheless, whether or not that is the case (if it isn't then I assume I can do the same thing by saving variable settings in a txt file or something) I am baffled because the code above does not work at all. That is to say, the robot is not replying on !strivia or on !etrivia. If the variables didn't save then if anything the robot should just reply with "Trivia Started" or with "Trivia is not running!" each time. But it just does not reply at all.
If I remove the check for triviaStatus, the robot DOES reply. But then there's no logic and I can't test my question out.
I also tried making a !trivstatus where it would reply back with
"Trivia status is " + triviaStatus
but that ALSO choked up. Why is it that every time I want to USE triviaStatus, the bot just dies? Note that I am able to SET triviaStatus fine (I just can't ever check what the output is by replying with it....)
So, to sum this up...how come the above code does not work but the following code DOES work:
elif (bliptxt == "\n!strivia"):
reply = blip.reply()
reply.append("Trivia Started!")
trivia_status = "playing"
elif (bliptxt == "\n!etrivia"):
reply = blip.reply()
reply.append("Trivia Ended!")
trivia_status = "stopped"
Thanks!
It seems that you should rename triviaStatus to trivia_status and make sure that trivia_status has some value e.g., bind it to None before the first use. Otherwise your code might raise UnboundLocalError or NameError exceptions due to triviaStatus/trivia_status doesn't refer to any object.

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