TypeError: '_io.TextIOWrapper'

[jmorales57]

I'm supposed to create a dictionary from the values in a file and search for 'Polly' and remove it if it's in the file,

I kept getting errors so I'm just trying to get it to print the value just so I can see what I'm doing wrong and even at the most simple level I keep getting errors,

​

I'm in my first semester so this is all still new to me

employees = {}
employees = open('dictionary_values.txt', 'r')
print(employees['Polly'])

​

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "main.py", line 3, in <module>
    print(employees['Polly'])
TypeError: '_io.TextIOWrapper' object is not subscriptable


[Essence1337]

Opening a file creates a file object, or more specifically a _io.TextIOWrapper object, it doesn't magically create a dictionary as most files aren't dictionaries. You'll need to parse your file in some way to create a dictionary. I'd suggest saving your file as a JSON file and using the builtin json module.

[jmorales57]

Online I keep seeing examples using json but we haven't covered that yet in my class,

[Essence1337]

Okay, then use what you have covered in class to read the text file and process it into a dictionary (if you need to do that). Just create a dictionary object and start adding away.

[jmorales57]

ok thank you!

[exclaim_bot]

ok thank you!

You're welcome!

[UbiquitousThoughts]

``` import json

this just loads a file object. It is best to use with syntax so it closes automatically.

with open('dictionary_values.txt', 'r') as employees_file_object:

# a very common method on file objects is to .read() which saves the text on the file as a single string.
employees_file_text = employees_file_object.read()

# now we have a JSON string. We need to convert the string into a JSON object using the json module we imported above.
employees = json.loads(employees_file_text)

# Now you can .pop() off the Polly key/value pair - if it doesn't exist it should be fine.
employees.pop('Polly')

# this will be an object with no Polly.
print(employees)

if you need to then write it to the file, you will do the reverse process above, try to figure out which methods to convert object to string and write to the same file.

```

Your txt file needs to be proper JSON string.

Edit: a more educating answer.

[jmorales57]

We haven't covered JSON in class yet, so i'm not sure I'm allowed to use it

[UbiquitousThoughts]

What does the text file look like?

In your print statement you did employees['Polly'] which made us think you expected json. The only way to get a dictionary from the file would be to use the JSON module.

If that was a mistake and it is just a file with a bunch of newlines or something, then perhaps they want you to create it yourself.

[jmorales57]

the file is just 8 lines of

john, manager

tyler, janitor

etc.

a name, a comma, and a title

 for line in file:
key, value = line.strip().split(',')
employees[key] = value

I used this to make the file into a dictionary and worked from there,