can't assign to literal ERROR, looping through list

[scharnisto]

hi,

i am trying to get this to work. it works fine so far. only when i try to loop through the list, i get an error.
any suggestions?

orig_file = open ("*Strata1CombinedAll.txt", "r")
lines = orig_file.readlines()




import fnmatch
def find(seq, pattern):
    pattern = pattern.lower()
    for i, n in enumerate(seq):
        if fnmatch.fnmatch(n.lower(), pattern):
            return i
            return -1

def index(seq, pattern):
    result = find(seq, pattern)
    if result == -1:
        raise ValueError
    return result
def contains(seq, pattern):
    return find(seq, pattern) != -1


for "*SWD*" in lines:
    begin_line = index(lines, "*SWD*")
    end_line = begin_line + 4
    
    del lines[begin_line:end_line]


new_text_file = open ("*test727", "w")
new_text_file.writelines(lines)
new_text_file.close()

[bvdet]

You cannot assign a value to a string literal. You must assign to an identifier. Example:

>>> lines = [1,2,3,4,5]
>>> for "astring" in lines:
... 	print "...."
Traceback (SyntaxError: can't assign to literal
>>> for n in lines:
... 	print n
... 	
1
2
3
4
5
>>>

[scharnisto]

okay thanks bvdet. my problem is, that i just know parts of my list element, for which i am looping.

so i tried to work my way around it, with this code:

orig_file = open ("*Strata1CombinedAll.txt", "r")
lines = orig_file.readlines()




import fnmatch
def find(seq, pattern):
    pattern = pattern.lower()
    for i, n in enumerate(seq):
        if fnmatch.fnmatch(n.lower(), pattern):
            return i
            return -1

def index(seq, pattern):
    result = find(seq, pattern)
    if result == -1:
        raise ValueError
    return result
def contains(seq, pattern):
    return find(seq, pattern) != -1


while contains(lines, "*SWD*"):
    begin_line = index(lines, "*SWD*")
    end_line = begin_line + 4
    
    del lines[begin_line:end_line]


new_text_file = open ("*test727", "w")
new_text_file.writelines(lines)
new_text_file.close()

but i am getting an error message, that says, that the there is no index for the "begin_line ". if i do it without the while loop, i do get an index for the "begin_line ".

error message:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "*working", line 26, in <module>
    end_line = begin_line + 4
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'NoneType' and 'int'

[dwblas]

See Traversing A List in an online book. I would suggest that you traverse the list as was done in the example

for cheese in cheeses:
    print cheese

and print each item of the list. Then check each item for the desired string, possibly using the in operator and process accordingly. Note that you should not delete from a list that you are traversing. Append the records you want to keep to a new list instead.

[scharnisto]

well i can not traverse the list, because i just know parts of the value. in order to traverse, you need to have the exact list element value, right?

so i need a different way. any suggestions?

[dwblas]

You either have a list or you don't. You can not have parts of a list.

[scharnisto]

well, i do have the full list.
i want to loop through the list.

i make up an example. i want to do something with all the green fruits in there:

fruit_list = ['greenapples', 'blueapples', 'greenpears', 'bluepears', 'greenoranges', 'blueoranges']

for green* in fruit_list:

but it does not work, because i need to loop for the full value like greenapples.
and i am looking for a way to work around this problem

[dwblas]

"i want to loop through the list" is the same thing as traversing a list which I covered in my first post, as well as a link on how to search the record using the in operator. If you are not going to read the posts then there is no reason to post further.