[SOLVED] python, trying to write multiple variables to a file on single line

fur · 02-04-2012, 03:15 PM

Trying to capture 2 variables from user input, then write them to a file on the same line.

Code:

#!/usr/local/bin/python
# Get raw input from command line.
word1 = raw_input("Pick a noun: ")
word2 = raw_input("Describe it: ")
#Open txt file for writing
outfile = open('/python/EXAMPLES/simpletext.txt','w')

outfile.write('Running script\n')
outfile.write(word1, word2)

Quote:

$ ./open-write-to-file.py
Pick a noun: cat
Describe it: is cool
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "./open-write-to-file.py", line 9, in <module>
outfile.write(word1, word2)
TypeError: function takes exactly 1 argument (2 given)

outfile.write('Running script\n')
words = word1 + word2
outfile.write(words)

Is as close as I got but the formatting isn't right.

Would also like a space between selection, and a newline at the end.

Thanks

dugan · 02-04-2012, 03:19 PM

Code:

outfile.write('{0} {1}\n'.format(word1, word2))

Dark_Helmet · 02-04-2012, 03:24 PM

dugan's approach should work. Also, you can use good ol' print:

For python pre-3.0:

Code:

print >> outfile, word1, word2

For python post-3.0:

Code:

print ( word1, word2, file=outfile )

fur · 02-04-2012, 03:29 PM

Prefect, could you explain what that part is doing?

Are the 0 and 1 the positional locations of the 2 variables? Does it change it to a single string or something?

Dark_Helmet · 02-04-2012, 03:38 PM

Not to steal dugan's thunder... but I noticed he went offline.

Quote:

Are the 0 and 1 the positional locations of the 2 variables? Does it change it to a single string or something?

Yes and yes.

EDIT:
More specifically, the format() method returns a copy of the string with the respective values inserted. There are other ways to describe how variables are to be substituted. You can refer to them by name:

Code:

vars['word1'] = raw_input("Pick a noun: ")
vars['word2'] = raw_input("Describe it: ")

...

outfile.write('{word1} {word2}\n'.format( **vars ) )

There are also ways to explicitly tell python that the associated value should be treated as a numeric value as opposed to a string, left- or right-aligned, zero- or space-padded, etc.