beginner's python help

[Maggie]

On Sep 6, 4:19 am, Chris Rebert <c... at rebertia.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 6, 2009 at 1:10 AM, Maggie<la.f... at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Sep 6, 3:58 am, Chris Rebert <c... at rebertia.com> wrote:
> >> On Sun, Sep 6, 2009 at 12:54 AM, hrishy<hris... at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> >> > Hi
>
> >> > sum = 0
> >> >  for item in readData:
> >> >     try:
> >> >         sum += int(item)
> >> >     except ValueError:
> >> >         print "Oops!  That was no valid number. Instead it was:", item
>
> >> > So you mean to say this would ignore the bad data and continue processing ?
>
> >> Yes. A new "try" happens every loop iteration since the "try" is
> >> within the loop body.
>
> >> Cheers,
> >> Chris
> >> --http://blog.rebertia.com
>
> > Wow, thanks for your suggestions, Chris. Exceptions are really
> > useful..
> > when i try running the script now I get a whole bunch of errors like
> > this one --
>
> > [jodorowskys-macbook-pro:~/desktop/formisano_replication] Jodorowsky%
> > python test1.py
> > That was not a valid number. Instead it was: {\rtf1\ansi
> > \ansicpg1252\cocoartf949\cocoasubrtf540
>
> > That was not a valid number. Instead it was: {\fonttbl\f0\fswiss
> > \fcharset0 Helvetica;}
>
> > That was not a valid number. Instead it was: {\colortbl;
> > \red255\green255\blue255;}
>
> > That was not a valid number. Instead it was:
> > \margl1440\margr1440\vieww9000\viewh8400\viewkind0
>
> > That was not a valid number. Instead it was: \pard
> > \tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\ql
> > \qnatural\pardirnatural
>
> > That was not a valid number. Instead it was: \f0\fs24 \cf0 32 123 231
> > 432 12}
>
> > -------------
>
> > why is it reading in all of the above? and how do I fix it and avoid
> > it in the future?
>
> Your file appears to be saved in Rich Text Format (RTF) rather than
> plain text (.TXT), hence Python is seeing all the formatting
> gibberish.
> Re-save it in the correct file format and try again.
>
> Cheers,
> Chris
> --http://blog.rebertia.com

the problem is - it is saved as a .txt and not in .rtf.. which is why
this error seems so bizarre..!