Reddit Command Line

rcl.py

#! /usr/bin/env python2

# Requests is much easier to use than urllib
import requests

# needed for sys.exit()
import sys

# Wrap it in a function you can, you might find a use for it later
# We're adding subreddit functionality, but still providing a default
def print_top(subreddit='all'):

    # Make it fancy! Let's let the user pick the subreddit
    url = "http://www.reddit.com/r/"+subreddit+".json"

    # This line
    r = requests.get(url)
    # replaces this
    # all = urllib.urlopen(url).read()
    # content = json.loads(all.decode("utf8"))
    # Little bit easier to remember, r.get(URL) than that monstrosity

    stories = {}

    # We're going to get a little fancy and allow the user to enter the subreddit they'd like to see
    # We want to see how many stories we're getting before, by calling len() on the data's children
    print "\nTop %s stories for %s\n" %(len(r.json['data']['children']), subreddit)  


    # Use enumerate to keep track of your position in a loop.
    # We could say content = r.json['data']['children'] if we wanted
    # r.json is just what it sounds like, a dictionary of the json in the response

    for index, x in enumerate(r.json["data"]["children"]):
        # A couple helper variables to keep the sanity
        data = x['data']
        # Converting the index to a string allows greater flexibility when we want to interact
        # Instead of trying to convert the entries into an int, we can just use strings
        index = str(index)

        # This was more of an cosmetic change, but it's a little easier to parse if the self
        # indicator is closer to the data you care about (the position)
        if data['selftext'] != "":
            # Might as well be consistent and either use string concatenation or formatting.
            # Switched to %s because we're using strings now.
            # Call strip to prevent newlines from being added where they shouldn't 
            print "[%s][S] %s" % (index, data['title'].strip())
            
            # Either join or concat, I like concat more (it's easier to see what's going on)
            # When we call a self post, we'll see the title, and the body, with a little bit of 
            # newline formatting to make it easier to read (less like a wall of text)
            story_data = "\nTitle: " + data['title'] + "\n\n" + data['selftext'] + "\n"
            stories[index] = story_data

        else:
            # If it's not a self post, we just print it and forget it.
            print "[%s]    %s" %(index, data['title'].strip())

    # add a newline after the subreddit list
    print "\n"

    # return stories so we can access the data outside the function
    return stories


print "Amazing reddit loader"
print "enter 'exit' to quit"
print "enter /r/SUBREDDIT to load a specific subreddit"
print "enter blank to reload the last subreddit"

# Call our function to print the top of all
stories = print_top()
subreddit = "all"

while True:
    st = raw_input("Which selfpost would you like to view? > ")
    
    if st == "exit":
        sys.exit()

    # This is our fancy subreddit picker
    # The usage is /r/SUBREDDIT and that will load the new subreddit
    elif "/r/" in st:
        subreddit = st.strip("/r/")
        stories = print_top(subreddit)

    elif st == "":
        # This lets us reload the last picked subreddit
        stories = print_top(subreddit)
    
    else:
        # A better way to get values from dictionaries if the value might not be there
        # (better than a try except) is to use get
        # get allows you to defined a default value if the key is not in the dictionary
        # This is great for programs that aren't always going to give you back a well formed
        # value, you can do this to give a good default value that makes your program not choke
        print stories.get(st, "Sorry, that is not a self-post")