Problem running executable built with PyInstaller

Question

I'm trying to build an exe with this script:

from pandas import read_csv

def csv_parser(path):
    a = read_csv(path, header=0, sep=";")
    return a

volume_surfarea_table = csv_parser(R"GURPS Vehicles Calc\Tables\Volume Area Table.csv")
component_dr_table = csv_parser(R"GURPS Vehicles Calc\Tables\Components DR Table.csv")

def get_CF():
    vsp = float(input("What's the VSP? "))
    cf = vsp/5
    
    rowN = 0
    for x in range(64):
        if cf <= volume_surfarea_table.iloc[rowN,0]:
            hit_points = volume_surfarea_table.iloc[rowN,1]
            break
        rowN = rowN + 1
    
    return hit_points


def get_DR():
    compo_type = input("What's the component type? ")
    compo_type = compo_type.title()
    
    rowN = 0
    for x in range(6):
        if compo_type in component_dr_table.iloc[rowN,0]:
            compoDR = component_dr_table.iloc[rowN,1]
            break

        rowN = rowN + 1
    
    return compoDR


finished = "false"
while finished == "false":
    hit_points = get_CF()
    compoDR = get_DR()

    compo_stats = f"""Your component has {hit_points}HP and a DR of {compoDR}."""

    print(compo_stats)
    
    done = input("Are you finished? (y/n) ")
    if done == "y":
        finished = "true"

Here's what I use on prompt:

pyinstaller -F --add-data "Tables\Volume Area Table.csv;GURPS Vehicles Calc\Tables" --add-data "Tables\Components DR Table.csv;GURPS Vehicles Calc\Tables" "Vehicles Calc.py"

The building process works fine, but whenever I try to run the exe, it gives me this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "Vehicles Calc.py", line 7, in <module>
  File "Vehicles Calc.py", line 4, in csv_parser
  File "pandas\util\_decorators.py", line 311, in wrapper
  File "pandas\io\parsers\readers.py", line 586, in read_csv
  File "pandas\io\parsers\readers.py", line 482, in _read
  File "pandas\io\parsers\readers.py", line 811, in __init__
  File "pandas\io\parsers\readers.py", line 1040, in _make_engine
  File "pandas\io\parsers\c_parser_wrapper.py", line 51, in __init__
  File "pandas\io\parsers\base_parser.py", line 222, in _open_handles
  File "pandas\io\common.py", line 701, in get_handle
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'Volume Area Table.csv'
[16192] Failed to execute script 'Vehicles Calc' due to unhandled exception!

What am I doing wrong? I've checked the documentation and a bunch of other stuff, but I can't build an exe that works.

Answer 1

I see that you are using the --onefile flag ( or -F) to bundle your application.

In this case you need special method to access your data files. Because your files are extracted into a temporary directory (In Windows that is %temp%\_MEIPASS). You can see the docs for reference.

So, you can do like this:

# Answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/44352931
import sys
import os

def resource_path(relative_path):
    """ Get absolute path to resource, works for dev and for PyInstaller """
    base_path = getattr(sys, '_MEIPASS', os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
    return os.path.join(base_path, relative_path)


volume_surfarea_table = csv_parser(resource_path(r"GURPS Vehicles Calc\Tables\Volume Area Table.csv"))

You can see the question here: Bundling data files with PyInstaller (--onefile)