Code shortening.

ex1orig.py

from sys import argv
from os.path import exists

script, from_file, to_file = argv

print(f"Copying from {from_file} to {to_file}")

in_file = open(from_file)
indata - in_file.read()

print(f"The input file is {len(indata)} bytes long")

print(f"Does the output file exist? {exists(to_file)}")
print("Ready, hit RETURN to continue, CTRL-C to abort.")
input()

out_file = open(to_file, 'w')
out_file.write(indata)

print("alright, all done.")

out_file.close()
in_file.close()

myex17.py

from sys import argv
from os.path import exists

script, from_file, to_file = argv

print(f"This file is {len(from_file)} bytes long")
print(f"Does the output file exist? {exists(to_file)}")
input("Press enter to write file.")
#you need the variable in order to use the write command
#you cannot run commands inside the write function
#open it in a variable first then you can write it.
f = open(from_file).read()
open(to_file, 'w').write(f)

wut. I mean in that line it's a string. but in the argv argument, you are typing in the name of a file

Yes, but I'm assuming you're trying to print the number of bytes in the file, not the number of characters in the file name

oh, I understand what you mean now.

Thats what len does. I was just shown the len function in this exercise, and wrongly assumed that it was bytes of the file... because isn't that as number of characters when it comes to a text file?

from_file is only a string, from what I can tell, since it comes from argv. You'd have to open and read the file (which you do later) or use some other method to find the size.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2104080/how-to-check-file-size-in-python

oh....... thats why in line 8 the author had him open the file first then use the len function.

Then it was closed afterwards. Thats a good catch.

also last line should be open(to_file, 'w').write(f)

not from_file (you're just writing the old file with its own contents)

haha yeah, I didn't revise it with my latest script. Good catch again.

it just clicked though. it has to be a string in the write() function, so I had to create a variable that would open the file so it can be read from to write into the to_file.

It was a bit weird... but then it clicked.