Question

I have a python file (html2text.py) which gives the desired result when i pass command line argument to it i.e., in the following way:

python html2text.py file.txt

• where file.txt contains the source code of a web-site and the result is displayed on the console…

I want to use it in another file (let say a.py) and store the result (which was getting printed on the console) in a string.

For this I need to first import the file (html2text.py) in my file (a.py). Can anyone tell me how do I proceed further…?

Answer 1

Good way is to create some API in your html2text.py. For example:

# html2text.py

def parse(filename):
    f = open(filename)
    # do the stuff
    return output_string

def main():
    import sys
    print parse(sys.argv[1])

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Then you will be able to use it in your a.py:

import html2text # main() will not run
import sys

output = html2text.parse(sys.argv[1])