Script called from another script with arguments from another variable

Question

I have created the Python script below which i would like to run and call another script from and then give the called script a variable in this case it would be an email address as "line" from a text file. What would be the easiest way to accomplish this please?

The problem now is that the script that is being called will not take the 'line' variable as an argument.

import bob 
import os 
# file handle fh fh = open('mailout.txt') while True:
# read line
line = fh.readline()
line = line.replace("\r", "").replace("\n", "")
command = 'python3 bob.py ' + line
os.system(command)
# check if line is not a empty value
if not line:
    break fh.close()

"It will not take"? As in, it is not written to accept arguments? Then you can't force it to. — deceze
– deceze ♦, Commented Jul 31, 2018 at 20:19
Also, there is likely a better way to execute that code than to use os.system to call it from the command line — sundance
– sundance, Commented Jul 31, 2018 at 20:23
Following up on @sundance 's comment more explicitly, a better pattern might be from bob import a_func and then later a_func(line) — Zach
– Zach, Commented Jul 31, 2018 at 20:26
Oh no it does take arguments but the script being called complains that no arguments are being given to it. I guess my main question is , what would be the best method to achieve this ? — Tbalz
– Tbalz, Commented Jul 31, 2018 at 20:32
See @Zach's comment: it may be better to import the function run it within your script. Short of that, the reason this is happening is probably because the argument needs to be quoted. Try command = 'python3 bob.py "{}"'.format(line), assuming your line does not have any double quotes — sundance
– sundance, Commented Jul 31, 2018 at 20:33

M_Gorky · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-31 22:45:09Z

1

As @Zach's comment, you can call it by giving line as argument. Otherwise, you can do it by using argparse. Assume that you have two functions inner.py and outer.py.

inner.py

import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('-s', '--sentence')
args = parser.parse_args()
print(args.sentence)

outer.py

import os
f = open('email.txt')
line = f.readline()
line = line.replace("\r", "").replace("\n", "")
line = "\""+line+"\""
command = 'python inner.py -s' + line
os.system(command)

Then calling python outer.py returns

Just a line to try

edited Jul 31, 2018 at 22:45

answered Jul 31, 2018 at 20:39

M_Gorky

581 silver badge9 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

Tbalz Over a year ago

Thanks i tried this, but line in my case is an email address read line by line from a text file. Should i put double or single quotes around the respective emails in the text file for this to work?

M_Gorky Over a year ago

Edited the answer in the way that it now reads line from a text file.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Script called from another script with arguments from another variable

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related