TypeError: 'function' object is not iterable

[bferguson94]

This program is supposed to mimic a phone book. This program also needs to be menu driven. The general idea is to accept a first name, last name, or phone number from the user and to read through a TEXT file,looking for a match. If you look at my program and what I have so far, it is easy to see that the text file location is ...C:\python26\ entries.txt and can be easily madeup. If you were to open the text file it would reas as follows: jones\n tom\n 208-203-3450\n johnson\n rob\n 345-324-1234\n and so on...

I think this program should work, but for some reason i keep getting a "TypeError: 'function' object is not iterable which is keeping my program from accesing the text document..

any suggestions?

 ##call to input file and return
##also calls to "lookup" modules for output

def main():
    myLastName = []
    myFirtName = []
    myPhoneNumber = []
    lname,fname,phone = getInput

    choice = 0

##menu options
    while choice !='4':
        choice = raw_input('1.lookup by last name\n 2.lookup by first name\n 3.lookup by phone number\n 4.quit')
        if choice == '1':
            getLname(lname, fname, phone)
        if choice == '2':
            getFname (lname, fname, phone)
        if choice == '3':
            getPhone (lname, fname, phone)
        if int(choice) < 0 :
            print "invalid option"
        if int (choice) > 4:
            print "invalid option"


def getInput():
    myfile= "c:\\python26\\entries.txt"
    fileInput = open(myFile, "r")
    count = 0
    for mystring in fileInput:
        myString = myString.strip()
        myString = myString.lower()
        myNum = count % 3
        if myNum == 0:
            myLastName.append(myString)
        elif myNum == 1:
            myFirstname.append(myString)
        elif myNum == 2:
            myPhoneNumber.append(myString)
        count = count + 1
        return
    fileInput.close



def getLname(lname, fname, phone):
    name = raw_input("last name to lookup:").strip().lower()

    pointer = 0
    if name in lname:
        while True:
            try:
                pointer = lname.index(name, pointer)
                print fname[pointer].title(),
                print lame[pointer].title()
                print phone[pointer]
            except:
                break
    else:
        print "no entry found for" + name.title()

def getFname(lname, fname, phone):
    name = raw_input("first name to lookup:").strip().lower()

    pointer = 0
    if name in fname:
        while True:
            try:
                pointer = fname.index(name, pointer)
                print fname[pointer].title(),
                print lame[pointer].title()
                print phone[pointer]
            except:
                break
    else:
        print "no entry found for" + name.title()
                           
def getPhone(lname, fname, phone):
    name = raw_input("phone number to lookup:").strip().lower()

    pointer = 0
    if name in phone:
        while True:
            try:
                pointer = phone.index(name, pointer)
                print fname[pointer].title(),
                print lame[pointer].title()
                print phone[pointer]
            except:
                break
    else:
        print "no entry found for" + name.title()
                           
main()

[bvdet]

This line:

    lname,fname,phone = getInput

should be:

    lname,fname,phone = getInput()

The error message gives it away. The parentheses tell Python to call the preceding function name.

[bferguson94]

ya that was it..

thanks!!

do you know how i could catch invalid user input on the menu that I have?? I have it programmed to catch any numbers out of range " < 0 and >4.. but it doesn't catch chars.

[bvdet]

You could do something like this:

>>> while True:
... 	option = raw_input("Enter 1,2,3 or 4")
... 	print option
... 	if option in ['1', '2', '3', '4']:
... 		break
... 	else:
... 		print "Invalid option"
... 		
6
Invalid option
A
Invalid option
2
>>>

Use an if/elif block instead of several if blocks. Example:

>>> if option == "2":
... 	print "2"
... elif option == "3":
... 	print "3"
... 	
2
>>>