Question

in Python I’m trying to set a variable from info stored in a txt. I can manage to set it, but it does not act as a number. Is it being stored as something else?
Here is my .txt file (all info is written on one line, no \ns):

11 14 15 3

Here is my script:

def break_words(text):
    words = text.split(' ')
    return words

file_name = open("set_initial.txt")
words = break_words(file_name.read())

shift_l1 = words[0]
shift_l2 = words[1]
shift_l3 = words[2]
shift_l4 = words[3]
shift_l5 = words[4]
shift_l6 = words[5]

# this part is to verify that the variables are being set:
print shift_l1, shift_l2, shift_l3, shift_l4

while shift_l4 < 28:
# and the script goes on into a loop from here

I am using this method because the length of the values in the txt will change (for example to: 114 34 2 4318). When I run the script, the print function works fine and returns my variables as the numbers I have in my .txt (11 14 15 3 respectively), so shift_l4 prints out as 3, so my WHILE loop should be functioning. But it’s not. As I said, I figure my variables aren’t being set to the number value of the numbers in the .txt, but maybe just the text value? I don’t know how to fix it though. Any help or ideas?

Thank you

Answer 1

“file_name” is not a good name for a file object. “words” is not a good name for a collection of numbers represented as strings. “shift_l5 = words[4]” and “shift_l6 = words[5]” will fail, because you have only 4 numbers.

Note that print "3" and print 3 produce the same results. Use print repr(something) instead of just print something to get a handle on what data you actually have.

Try this:

f = open("set_initial.txt")
numbers = [int(n) for n in f.read().split()]
print numbers
assert len(numbers) == 4
shift_l1, shift_l2, shift_l3, shift_l4 = numbers
print shift_l1, shift_l2, shift_l3, shift_l4