🔒 Python not engaging with file, resulting in logic error

[lean musk]

Code in attached file

Output:

Welcome, user!

1. Enter new entry
2. Check history
3. Clear history by category
4. Close application
   What would you like to do today? Please input a number: 2
5. Food
6. Transport
7. Utilities
8. Entertainment
9. Miscellaneous/Other
   Which category would you like to check?: 2

Which category would you like to check?: 1

Which category would you like to check?: 3

Which category would you like to check?: 4

Which category would you like to check?: 5

Which category would you like to check?: 6
Please enter a valid number.
Which category would you like to check?: 0
Please enter a valid number.
Which category would you like to check?: test
Please enter a valid number.
Please enter a valid number.
Which category would you like to check?:

[jaunty minnow]

@lean musk

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[neat heron]

to debug, print category right after having it assigned

I ran your code and it works fine

[lean musk]

thanks

i tried making a small if statement that checks the length of the text in my files and print something if theres nothing and it doesnt do anything, even if im checking the file manually and its empty

wait how does that work? category is just an input variable to decide which file is interacted with

[neat heron]

something that is wrong in your code is that if the except is triggered, something is printed but you still executed the remaining of the loop

[neat heron]

how does what work ?

[lean musk]

printing category since its just an input variable. its designed to select the correct file based on user input

[lean musk]

it doesnt engage with the file at all either. doesnt write to it, doesnt read it

[neat heron]

well, you can still print it

print(category)

you don't need to close (I may think it can even be a problem) a file if you open it with with open(...)

[lean musk]

I thought that as well but nothing changed here

like I've tried closing it, I've tried not closing it. No change in result

[neat heron]

also while category_check == False

ewww

while not category_check is better

[lean musk]

didnt know that was a thing

ooooookay now VS code is being weird. its trying to start the code halfway through

[neat heron]

and it is even easier to use break and continue in a while True loop

[lean musk]

like i'll click Run and it'll immediately ask the category i wanna check

like my dude theres an entire block of code to go through before executing functions

[lean musk]

thanks, i'll see what i can do

[neat heron]

you probably changed a variable somewhere

like answercheck

[lean musk]

ive had this issue before and i just restarted VSC and it fixed itself

i havent touched answercheck

and printing category didnt help, its still not writing to the file or printing its contents

okay this is interesting:

File "c:\Users\myname\OneDrive\Documents\python project 2025\Summer Programming Assignment 2025.py", line 30, in list_check
if len(file) == 0:
^^^^^^^^^
TypeError: object of type '_io.TextIOWrapper' has no len()

but it does? i manually entered something to check whether the file was reading

it just says "test1" in there

[neat heron]

a file has no len

you can read what's inside and compute its length, but no the length of a file

[lean musk]

is there a way to check if a file is empty?

[neat heron]

yes, you read it and you check the length of what you read

[neat heron]

that was to debug whether the correct case was used

[lean musk]

i mean it just prints the number i inputted and continues with the code

[lean musk]

how do i do this? declare it as a variable and check the length of the variable?

[neat heron]

you can read the content of a file with

with open(..., 'r') as file:
  content = file.read()

content is a str with the content of the file

[lean musk]

ahhhhhhhh ok

and then print(content)?

[neat heron]

and then whatever you want to do with content

[lean musk]

ok cool thanks

what about the writing issue?

cuz im entering new entries and nothing happens

[neat heron]

for the files like food etc, you are not writing anything inside

for the files like f.txt, g.txt I am not sure, maybe that .close() isn't correct

[lean musk]

possibly

ive also found that i had to manually create the files but the variables right at the top of the code are literally there to automatically create the files

[neat heron]

oooo but you never close those files

when you open them first

that's a problem

and no, you don't need it

remove those lines

[lean musk]

ok

so im correcting the file names. f.txt, etc arent meant to be there, its meant to be the full names (food.txt, entertainment.txt, etc)

looks like its all done

what about the clearing section?

ive got the file writing and reading now

i just need it to reset files as well

wait hang on

its reading a file but i cant find it

its not reading the correct file

all files are empty yet its still printing something

[viscid plume]

print(os.path.abspath(filename)) to see exactly what Python is accessing

[jaunty minnow]

Python help channel closed for inactivity

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