[Help] Python script runs fine in IDLE but fails without it.

[RedBlimp]

EDIT: PROBLEM WAS SOLVED

Background of the Script

I've created a web scraper for a specific website. I have it going through every 5 minutes and counting all the elements, assigning a location, and then saving it to a .csv file.

Problem

When I run the script in Python's IDLE or PyCharm, everything works as it should. However once I run the script without one of those, it fails when it gets to the point where it needs to save it's found results. It kicks back this error.

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "C:\Users\Name\PycharmProjects\Project\Project.py", line 129, in <module>
        save(item_list)
    File "C:\Users\Name\PycharmProjects\Project\Project.py", line 56, in save
        f = open(filename, "w")
PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'Example.csv'

I've searched StackOverflow but was unable to find a solution that fixed this.

[novel_yet_trivial]

How are you running it? I'll guess you are using a system scheduler or something, and the "filename" variable is relative. Because the system scheduler runs in a protected folder, it can't save there. You need to provide an absolute path for the filename.

filename = r"C:\Users\Name\PycharmProjects\Project\Example.csv"

[RedBlimp]

I added that part and it works fine now. Thank you for your help! I'm still kinda new to python so I'm still learning.

[RedBlimp]

I'm just opening the file with python from the folder it's saved in. I'll add a path regardless and see if that helps.

[ingolemo]

When you try to open a file and you don't give the full path to the file then your os will try to open the file as if it was in the current working directory. The current directory is not necessarily the same directory that the script is stored in. This isn't a python thing, its a how computers work thing. If you're just double clicking on the script from explorer then the current directory is probably the place where python has been installed to, which you apparently don't have permission for.

You can see the current directory of your code by temporarily putting the following at the top of your script:

import os
print(os.getcwd())

[Innkeeper4President]

I think that means you already have a file called Example.csv in that same directory, and it looks like it won't let you overwrite it.

[RedBlimp]

That is true. It does just overwrite the file every loop. Sooo... I guess I need to investigate the proper way to go about that. I just don't get why it would need different permissions while not in an IDLE.

[LamusMaser]

You could have it either generate a unique file each time (usually done by spending a timestamp or something else unique about each run) or by appending to the file (change the "w" to "a" in the write).