Reading a variable text file from variable directory using python

Question

I am new to python and reckon I'm doing something wrong while trying to access a variable file(text file) from a variable directory. The code that I've written is:

filename = input('Enter filename')
dir = input('Enter directory')

with open('%s/%s.txt' %dir % filename,'r') as myfile:
    input = myfile.read().replace('\n','')

But I'm unable to access the file due to error which says:

TypeError: not enough arguments for format string

Can anyone help me in this?

Where did you learn that syntax from?

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams
– Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

2016-05-08 07:12:36 +00:00
Commented May 8, 2016 at 7:12 — Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams
– Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams, Commented May 8, 2016 at 7:12

AKS · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-08 07:20:08Z

1

Your format string is wrong. Try this:

with open('%s/%s.txt' % (dirname, filename),'r') as myfile:
    input = myfile.read().replace('\n','')

Instead of the above you could also use named parameters using format:

with open('{dirname}/{filename}.txt'.format(dirname=dirname, filename=filename),'r') as myfile:
    input = myfile.read().replace('\n','')

Also, note that dir is an in-built function so you should not use that as a variable. I changed it to dirname in the example.

edited May 8, 2016 at 7:20

answered May 8, 2016 at 7:13

AKS

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1 Comment

Naman Arora Over a year ago

I get the following error: OSError: [Errno 22] Invalid argument: '<built-in function dir>/asthma.txt'

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