Question

Hey I am very new to python but I am trying to make a simple registration system. I would like to be able to have a function update when I add a member but I cannot figure out how. As you will see in the code below, once I am finished adding a member in menu option 2, when I go back and try menu option 1 the member I have just added does not show up. How do I make the show_members function reload the updated dictionary?

In addition to my above question, any advice on ways to improve the below code would be welcome. And yes I know that it is very incomplete but it is a WIP.

import sys
import shutil
import os

tmp = os.path.isfile("members.py.tmp")
if tmp == True:
    os.remove("members.py.tmp")
shutil.copyfile("members.py", "members.py.tmp")

from members import members

def show_menu():
    os.system("clear")
    print "\n","*" * 12, "MENU", "*" * 12
    print "1. List members"
    print "2. Add member"
    print "3. Delete member"
    print "99. Save"
    print "0. Abort"
    print "*" * 28, "\n"
    return input("Please make a selection: ")

def show_members(members):
    for keys in members.keys():
        os.system("clear")
        print "\nNames", "     ", "Code"
        print keys, " - ", members[keys]

def add_member(members):
    os.system("clear")
    name = raw_input("Please enter name: ")
    code = raw_input("Please enter code: ")
    members[name] = code
    return members


#with open("foo.txt", "a") as f:
#     f.write("new line\n")

running = 1

while running:
    selection = show_menu()
    if selection == 1:
        show_members(members)
        print "\n> " ,raw_input("Press enter to continue")
    elif selection == 2:
        add_member(members)
        print "\n> " ,raw_input("Press enter to continue")
    elif selection == 99:
        shutil.copyfile("members.py.tmp", "members.py")
    elif selection == 0:
        os.remove("members.py.tmp")
        sys.exit("Program Aborted")
    else:
        os.system("clear")
        print "That is not a valid option!"
        print "\n> " ,raw_input("Press enter to continue")

Answer 1

In this code:

if selection == 2:
    add_member(members)

you are returning members, but not doing anything with the return value.

Easiest thing to do is change it to:

if selection == 2:
    members = add_member(members)