type error need string or buffer, file found in python

Question

So when i write this chunk of code separately, it works fine but when i combine them together it give me typeError. Why is this happen? I don't get it when i wrote them separately it works fine. thanks in advance :)

def printOutput(start, end, makeList):

  if start == end == None:

      return

  else:

      print start, end

      with open('OUT'+ID+'.txt','w') as outputFile:#file for result output
          for inRange in makeList[(start-1):(end-1)]:
              outputFile.write(inRange)
          with open(outputFile) as file:
              text = outputFile.read()
      with open('F'+ID+'.txt', 'w') as file:
        file.write(textwrap.fill(text, width=6))

mgilson · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-11 18:38:10Z

5

Your problem is at this line:

 with open(outputFile) as file:

outputFile is a file object (which is already open). The open function wants a string (or something like it) which is the name of a file to open.

If you want to get the text back, you can always outputFile.seek(0) and then outputFile.read() again. (Of course, you'll have to open in r+ mode for this to work.)

Perhaps an even better way to do this would be:

with open('OUT'+ID+'.txt','w') as outputFile:#file for result output
    text=''.join(makeList[(start-1):(end-1)])
    outputFile.write(text)
with open('F'+ID+'.txt', 'w') as ff:
    ff.write(textwrap.fill(text, width=6)) #Version of above file with text wrapped to 6 chars.

EDIT

This should work:

def printOutput(start, end, makeList):
    if start == end == None:
        return
    else:
        print start, end

        with open('OUT'+ID+'.txt','w') as outputFile:#file for result output
            text=''.join(makeList[(start-1):(end-1)])
            outputFile.write(text)
        with open('F'+ID+'.txt', 'w') as ff:
            ff.write(textwrap.fill(text, width=6)) #Version of above file with text wrapped to 6 chars.

edited Jul 11, 2012 at 18:38

answered Jul 11, 2012 at 18:19

mgilson

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8 Comments

Chad D Over a year ago

what is the number inside seek() means and are you saying that i should use with open(outputFile, 'r+) as dile and outputFile.seek(0) and outputFile.read()

mgilson Over a year ago

The number inside seek (0) is the file position. In this case, 0 is the beginning of the file. And yes, I am saying use open(outputFile, 'r+), but rather than seeking, see my updated answer which gets the text all together and then writes it all at once, keeping a handle on the text to use with textwrap

Chad D Over a year ago

I guess my goal is to write the file and format it so that only 6 character per line

mgilson Over a year ago

@ChadD -- You have two files. The first file 'OUT'+ID+'.txt' and the second file 'F'+ID+'.txt'. The second file will have the text wrapped at 6 characters. The first file won't.

Chad D Over a year ago

i will update the code that i have.. i m not quite clear of what i should do but what i have above still doesnt work

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