Question

I created a simple program that lets you input a set of numbers, then creates a randomly generated list of pairs from the data that was given by the person.
How can I save the data (as a Windows file) once it finishes?
This is my code:

import random as ran
import easygui as eg
nList=vList=eg.multenterbox(msg="Enter the names of the people:"
                , title="Random Pair Generator"
                , fields=('Name:', 'Name:','Name:','Name:','Name:','Name:','Name:','Name:','Name:','Name:','Name:','Name:','Name:','Name:','Name:','Name:','Name:','Name:','Name:','Name:',)
                , values=['1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', '10', '11', '12', '13', '14', '15', '16', '17', '18', '19', '20']
                )

index=0
x=''
y=''
pList=[]
pair=''

while not(index==len(nList)):
   x=nList[index]
   y=ran.choice(vList)
   pair=x+'; '+y
   pList.insert(index, pair)
   vList.remove(y)
   index= index+1

    eg.textbox(msg="These are the pairs generated."
                , title= "Random Pair Generator"
                , text= str(pList)
                , codebox=0
                )

I just want to save pList as a file, anywhere on my computer (preferably somewhere I can specify).
Also, this loop creates an issue. It doesn’t raise an error with syntax or anything, but the output is not what I want it to be.

What it does is it uses each value from nList, then picks a random value from vList, and then puts those as one object into pList. However, the problem arises that when I have it delete the output of “y” from vList, it also removes it from nList.

Example: If nList contains 5 objects: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] and vList has the same objects [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. It would select a random number from vList for every value in nList.
However, once a variable from vList is chosen, it is removed from the list. The problem is that say pList starts as [1; 2] where 1; 2 is one object, the next object would start at 3. It would skip over 2 because 2 was already used as a ‘y’ value.

Answer 1

If you just want to save the list of pairs in the same format as it was displayed in your eg.textbox, add something like this to end of your program:

filename = eg.filesavebox(msg=None
                        , title='Save Pair List'
                        , default="pairs.txt"
                        , filetypes=['*.txt']
                        )

with open(filename, 'wt') as output:
    output.write(str(pList)+'\n')

You could write each pair of the list on a separate line of the output file like this:

with open(filename, 'wt') as output:
    for pair in pList:
        output.write(pair+'\n')

Using the with statement means the file will be closed for you automatically after the block of code it controls is finished.