[Tutor] PYTHON NEWBIE HELP!

[Alan Gauld]

On 15/10/12 02:21, Salinas, Erwin d wrote:
> HELP! Hi I'm a newbie in Python, I'm having trouble organizing the FILE
> into the OUTPUT BELOW. I put the file into read, then I put it on a
> list, and my plan is to put the name and the corresponding grades into a
> dictionary, using the elements on the list, but when I print the
> dictionary, it's not giving me the result I wanted. MY CODE SO FAR IS
> SHOWN BELOW THE OUTPUT.

There are lots of things we could comment on but I'll highlight just a 
few key ones. Fix them and try again...

> filename = open("student_grades_hm_5.txt")
> infile = filename.read()

This reads the entire file as a single string.
You might find file.readlines() more useful in this case.

> mix_list = infile.split()

This splits the file based on whitespace. It will ignore commas so that 
for example your first few items will be split:

['HM3', '80' ',' 'HM2' ',90' ',' 'ID,' '1000123456,HM4,92,Last_name,Rubble']

You can see this if you print the mix_list variable.
Notice that you have commas on their own and the last 'item'
is a long one. You need to look more closely at how you want
split to work. Check the documentation.

> print "Name | ID | HM1 | HM2 | HM3 | HM4 | Avg. |"
> print "______________________________________________________"
>
> Student_one =
> {"Name":mix_list[9],"ID":mix_list[5],"HM1":0,"HM2":mix_list[3],
> "HM3":mix_list[1],"HM4":mix_list[7]}

This probably gives you the wrong result because of the way you used 
split(). Also it will only output a single line, but for testing that 
may all you intended?

But for future reference its always worth providing a sample of the 
faulty output so that we don;t need to guess. And instead of just saying 
it's 'not giving me the result I wanted', be more specific about what 
you perceive as being wrong. For example 'wrong data', 'bad formatting', 
'incomplete data' etc

-- 
Alan G
Author of the Learn to Program web site
http://www.alan-g.me.uk/