Python program that reads a text file for input?

Question

So I'm currently trying to write some code that opens and reads a text file. The text file contains a short paragraph. Within the paragraph, there are some words with brackets around them, which could look like: "the boy [past_tense_verb] into the wall." I am trying to write code that looks for the brackets in the text file, and then displays to the user the words in the text file, for the user to then write some input that will replace the bracketed words. This is the code I have so far:

f = open('madlib.txt', 'r')
for line in f:
    start = line.find('[')+1
    end = line.find(']')+1
    word = line[start:end+1]
    inputword = input('Enter a ' + word + ': ')
    print(line[:start] + inputword + line[end:])

Any help is greatly appreciated - thanks!

This code fails when there is no [past_tense_verbs] in the line, because find() returns -1 for "not found", and it's being promoted to 0. Do you need to handle the case where there is more than one bracketed word in the line? — Kingsley
– Kingsley, Commented Mar 1, 2019 at 1:32
This would be best implemented with regex. Is there a reason why you aren't using it? — blhsing
– blhsing, Commented Mar 1, 2019 at 1:33
@Kingsley - yes, on some of the lines, there are two bracketed words. — bandits24
– bandits24, Commented Mar 1, 2019 at 1:43
@blhsing - I have not learned about regex yet - care to expand your thought a little? — bandits24
– bandits24, Commented Mar 1, 2019 at 1:43

aedry · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-01 02:53:22Z

3

import re

with open('madlib.txt', 'r') as f:
    data = f.read()

words_to_replace = re.findall(r"\[(\w+)\]", data)
replace_with = []

for idx, i in enumerate(words_to_replace):
    print(f"Type here replace \033[1;31m{i}\033[1;m with:", end =" ")
    a = input()
    replace_with.append(a)

for idx, i in enumerate(replace_with):
    data = data.replace(words_to_replace[idx], i)

with open('newmadlib.txt', 'w') as f:
    f.write(data)

edited Mar 1, 2019 at 2:53

answered Mar 1, 2019 at 2:03

aedry

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7 Comments

bandits24 Over a year ago

The third and fourth lines are getting syntax errors at the end of their line

bandits24 Over a year ago

no worries! I just tried the new code, but am now getting an error saying 'm' is not defined, when being used in the line "for idx, i in enumerate(m):"

aedry Over a year ago

oops... try now

bandits24 Over a year ago

Works really well - thanks! Is there any way to ask the user like "Enter a .." and then whatever kind of word is in the bracket?

aedry Over a year ago

Yes. I've just replaced print(i) to print(f'Type to replace {i}:')

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