using functions and file renaming problem

[hokiegal99]

Thanks again for the help Andy! One last question: What is the advantage 
of placing code in a function? I don't see how having this bit of code 
in a function improves it any. Could someone explain this?

Thanks!

Andy Jewell wrote:
> On Friday 18 Jul 2003 2:33 am, hokiegal99 wrote:
> 
>>A few questions about the following code. How would I "wrap" this in a
>>function, and do I need to?
>>
>>Also, how can I make the code smart enough to realize that when a file
>>has 2 or more bad charcters in it, that the code needs to run until all
>>bad characters are gone?
> 
> 
> It almost is ;-)
> 
> 
>>For example, if a file has the name
>>"<bad*mac\file" the program has to run 3 times to get all three bad
>>chars out of the file name.
>>
>>The passes look like this:
>>
>>1. <bad*mac\file becomes -bad*mac\file
>>2. -bad*mac\file becomes -bad-mac\file
>>3. -bad-mac\file becomes -bad-mac-file
>>
>>I think the problem is that once the program finds a bad char in a
>>filename it replaces it with a dash, which creates a new filename that
>>wasn't present when the program first ran, thus it has to run again to
>>see the new filename.
> 
> 
> No, the problem is that you're throwing away all but the last correction.  
> Read my comments below:
> 
> import os, re, string
> bad = re.compile(r'%2f|%25|[*?<>/\|\\]') #search for these.
> print " "
> setpath = raw_input("Path to the dir that you would like to clean: ")
> print " "
> print "--- Remove Bad Charaters From Filenames ---"
> print " "
> for root, dirs, files in os.walk(setpath):
>      for file in files:
>          badchars = bad.findall(file)	# find any bad characters
>          newfile = file
>          for badchar in badchars:		# loop through each character in badchars  
>          # note that if badchars is empty, this loop is not entered
>              # show whats happening         
>              print "replacing",badchar,"in",newfile,":", 
>              # replace all occurrences of this badchar with '-' and remember 
>              # it for next iteration of loop:            
>              newfile = newfile.replace(badchar,'-') #replace bad chars.
>              print newfile
>          if badchars:	# were there any bad characters in the name?
>              newpath = os.path.join(root,newfile)
>              oldpath = os.path.join(root,file)
>              os.rename(oldpath,newpath)
>              print oldpath
> print newpath
> print " "
> print "--- Done ---"
> print " "
> 
> 
> wrt wrapping it up in a function, here's a starter for you... "fill in the 
> blanks":
> 
> 
> -------8<-----------
> def cleanup(setpath):
>     # compile regex for finding bad characters
> 
>     # walk directory tree...
> 
>     # find any bad characters
> 
>     # loop through each character in badchars
> 
>              # replace all occurrences of this badchar with '-' and remember 
> 
>     # were there any bad characters in the name?
> 
> -------8<-----------
> 
> To call this you could do (on linux - mac paths are different):
> 
> -------8<-----------
> cleanup("/home/andy/Python")
> -------8<-----------
> 
> hope that helps
> -andyj
> 
>