Question

This is probably a stupid question, but I just can’t figure out how to simplify this code.

I have a web form that contains eleven file upload buttons.
These are tagged p1-3, q1-5, x1-2, and cb.

In the script that processes the uploads, I need to check if a new file is being uploaded, or if just one (or none) of them is being changed.

If it’s changed, I save it and create an ogg to use in an audio tag.

Here’s the question. How do I iterate through the variable names cleanly? Right now I’ve got eleven blocks like this, and it makes me cringe.

I suppose simply creating a function to handle everything after the if:raise is easy enough, but what I’d like to do is simply pass a function a list of the names that I’m looking for, have it assign a variable, and take care of business.

    try:
            x2 = form['x2']
            if not x2.filename: raise
            outfile = '%s/x2.wav' % savepath
            oggfile = '%s/x2.ogg' % oggdir
            open(outfile, 'wb').write(x2.file.read())
            command = 'oggenc %s -o %s' % (outfile, oggfile)
            output = subprocess.check_output(command, shell=True, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
    except:
            pass

Answer 1

Try something like the following:

for x in ('p1', 'p2', 'p3', 'q1', 'q2', 'q3', 'q4', 'q5', 'x1', 'x2'):
    try:
        f = form[x]
        if not f.filename: raise
        outfile = '%s/%s.wav' % (savepath, x)
        oggfile = '%s/%s.ogg' % (oggdir, x)
        open(outfile, 'wb').write(f.file.read())
        command = 'oggenc %s -o %s' % (outfile, oggfile)
        output = subprocess.check_output(command, shell=True, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
    except:
        pass