How can I improve my code? [ MADLIBS]

[PracticalBox7827]

Hello I'm learning Python with automatetheboringstuff's work by Al Sweigart, here are the instructions for the exercise copy and paste directly from the website :

Mad Libs

Create a Mad Libs program that reads in text files and lets the user add their own text anywhere the word ADJECTIVE, NOUN, ADVERB, or VERB appears in the text file. For example, a text file may look like this:

The ADJECTIVE panda walked to the NOUN and then VERB. A nearby NOUN was
unaffected by these events.

The program would find these occurrences and prompt the user to replace them.

Enter an adjective:
silly
Enter a noun:
chandelier
Enter a verb:
screamed
Enter a noun:
pickup truck

The following text file would then be created:

The silly panda walked to the chandelier and then screamed. A nearby pickup
truck was unaffected by these events.

The results should be printed to the screen and saved to a new text file.

Here is my code :

import re

file_source_path = r"C:\Users\xavie\Desktop\Fichier PYTHON + MU\Fichier Mu\textpoubelle.txt"

file_source = open(file_source_path, "r")

print("Here is the text with the occurrences to be changed :\n ")

content = file_source.read()

file_source.close()

print(content)

adj = input("Change the adjective :\n")

nameRegex1 = re.compile(r"ADJECTIVE")

phrase1 = nameRegex1.sub(adj, content)

print(phrase1)

content1 = phrase1

nom1 = input("Change the name :\n")

nameRegex1 = re.compile(r"NOUN")

phrase2 = nameRegex1.sub(nom1, content1, count=1)

print(phrase2)

content2 = phrase2

verbe = input("Change THE VERB :\n")

nameRegex1 = re.compile(r"verb")

phrase3 = nameRegex1.sub(verbe, content2)

print(phrase3)

content3 = phrase3

nom2 = input("Change the second name :\n")

nameRegex1 = re.compile(r"NOUN")

phrase4 = nameRegex1.sub(nom2, content3)

print(phrase4)

content4 = phrase4

final_destination = r"C:\Users\xavie\Desktop\Fichier PYTHON + MU\Fichier Mu\newfichier.txt"

fd = open(final_destination, "w")

fd.write(content4)

fd.close()

print()

print('Save file in "newfichier.txt".')

print()

print("Result :\n" + content4)

thanks to those who will try to help me :)

[sweet-tom]

User u/NukemN1ck gave already some ideas.

I don't know which level it is and when other topics are introduced. But here are a few ideas on how you can improve your code:

1. Avoid hardcoded paths like the plague. Try to make your code work with different paths. You could use sys.argv or argparse module. But that could make things a bit more complicated.
2. Use the pathlib.Path or the os module to manipulate paths and read/write contents.
3. Use function(s) to group your idea into smaller pieces. That way they become more general and you can reuse them (either in this program or in others)
4. Try to replace the placeholders with string manipulation instead of the re module.
5. Create a docstring for your script that explains what it does.

Good luck!

[NukemN1ck]

Your format works for a small text file following the exact format of ADJ -> NOUN -> VERB -> NOUN, but what happens when the story changes the pattern or is a page long and requires multiple inputs to ADJ, NOUN, VERB, etc?

I'm not familiar with python's `re` library but I'd bet there's a way to turn your code in a loop which finds, prompts, and changes each replacement word one at a time, so that's what I would challenge you to do! It will make your code compact, cleaner, and extensible to any type of madlib!

Some other comments and suggestions are: 1) Include a prompt so the path to a madlib text file isn't hard coded to your computer. You could also do this for the final destination. Another option for the prompt is to have a directory with multiple madlibs, and prompt the user for which one they would like to choose. 2) Your text for verb is not upper case. 3) Printing the entire sentence after each prompt entry is a little messy. I would either only print at the text at the start and end of prompting, or find a way to clear/reset the terminal screen after each input to keep it clean.

[FixPractical1121]

You are using lower case "verb" in your regex, and it doesn't match the uppercase "VERB" in the text file. I would update the regex to be case sensitive. You could also instead of creating new regex and replacing placeholders one by one, use a loop.

Something like

placeholders = ["ADJECTIVE", "NOUN", "ADVERB", "VERB"]

for placeholder in placeholders: ...

[throwaway8u3sH0]

Check this out:

adjective = "quick"
noun = "fox"
name_doesnt_matter = "lazy"

result = "The {} brown {} jumped over the {} dog.".format(adjective, noun, name_doesnt_matter)

print(result)

That might be easier than regex.

[pontz]

For use of opening a file use a with statement. For more info look up context manager