beginner's python help

[Chris Rebert]

On Sun, Sep 6, 2009 at 1:10 AM, Maggie<la.foma at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sep 6, 3:58 am, Chris Rebert <c... at rebertia.com> wrote:
>> On Sun, Sep 6, 2009 at 12:54 AM, hrishy<hris... at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>> > Hi
>>
>> > sum = 0
>> >  for item in readData:
>> >     try:
>> >         sum += int(item)
>> >     except ValueError:
>> >         print "Oops!  That was no valid number. Instead it was:", item
>>
>> > So you mean to say this would ignore the bad data and continue processing ?
>>
>> Yes. A new "try" happens every loop iteration since the "try" is
>> within the loop body.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Chris
>> --http://blog.rebertia.com
>
> Wow, thanks for your suggestions, Chris. Exceptions are really
> useful..
> when i try running the script now I get a whole bunch of errors like
> this one --
>
> [jodorowskys-macbook-pro:~/desktop/formisano_replication] Jodorowsky%
> python test1.py
> That was not a valid number. Instead it was: {\rtf1\ansi
> \ansicpg1252\cocoartf949\cocoasubrtf540
>
> That was not a valid number. Instead it was: {\fonttbl\f0\fswiss
> \fcharset0 Helvetica;}
>
> That was not a valid number. Instead it was: {\colortbl;
> \red255\green255\blue255;}
>
> That was not a valid number. Instead it was:
> \margl1440\margr1440\vieww9000\viewh8400\viewkind0
>
> That was not a valid number. Instead it was: \pard
> \tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\ql
> \qnatural\pardirnatural
>
> That was not a valid number. Instead it was: \f0\fs24 \cf0 32 123 231
> 432 12}
>
> -------------
>
> why is it reading in all of the above? and how do I fix it and avoid
> it in the future?

Your file appears to be saved in Rich Text Format (RTF) rather than
plain text (.TXT), hence Python is seeing all the formatting
gibberish.
Re-save it in the correct file format and try again.

Cheers,
Chris
--
http://blog.rebertia.com