Getting different output in Python programming

Question

For this program I, am getting the output twice the value. The input file is like read a file and extract the senders email address which is next to from. Display the total number of emails with count

name = input("Enter file:")
if len(name) < 1 : name = "mbox-short.txt"
handle = open(name)
words = list()
count = dict()
for line in handle:
    line = line.rstrip()
    if line.startswith ('From'):
        y = line.split()
        print (y)
        words.append(y[1])
        x = y[1]
        print (x)
for w in words:
    count[w] = count.get(w, 0) + 1
print (count)

Please provide a minimal reproducible example with sample input. — Yunnosch
– Yunnosch, Commented Dec 28, 2020 at 7:36
without seeing the data, it may be difficult to know why your output is giving one result while you are expecting something else. Also does line = line.rstrip() result in a list or a string? — Joe Ferndz
– Joe Ferndz, Commented Dec 28, 2020 at 8:08
Good to see that you removed the reference to source file. It was not good to have the actual data floating around. I will edit my response to remove the output as well. — Joe Ferndz
– Joe Ferndz, Commented Dec 28, 2020 at 9:08

Joe Ferndz · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-28 09:09:02Z

2

I reviewed the data in the input file. As BoarGules mentioned, the input file has both values From and From: . Looking at the data, it looks like you want to use data that have only From .

Here's the code that will give you the desired result:

count = dict()
with open ('"mbox-short.txt', 'r') as f:
     for line in f:
         if line.startswith('From '):
             w = line.split()[1]
             count[w] = count.get(w, 0) + 1

print (count)

The output of this will be as per your original post:

removed output as it contains sensitive personal info.

edited Dec 28, 2020 at 9:09

answered Dec 28, 2020 at 9:04

Joe Ferndz

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Comments

BoarGules · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-28 08:38:39Z

2

The intent of your code is clearly to count the "from line" prefixed to every message in mbox format. But stored email messages also contain headers, and most emails contain a From: header, which your code also counts. That is why the counts are double what you expect.

answered Dec 28, 2020 at 8:38

BoarGules

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3 Comments

pippo1980 Over a year ago

cmon its not fair the input file was missing !! I wont be able to get out of my ask question ban ..... sorry about my rant I am giving you my vote

BoarGules Over a year ago

The input file format was clear from the question. And the file is probably big, and also it would have been quite improper to publish it without disguising it to the point that it could not be trusted to represent the original correctly. I'm already uncomfortable about the presence of genuine email addresses being published like this, even if they are mostly academic addresses that are widely available anyway.

pippo1980 Over a year ago

Was just kidding I am really new at Python and here usually I get really informative and good answers to my many questions (maybe too many) and Now I am stuck with the no more question ban

Tomerikoo · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-28 09:03:50Z

2

Found the solution for my problem. After from should have given space. Instead of if line.startswith('From') it should be if line.startswith('From ')

edited Dec 28, 2020 at 9:03

Tomerikoo

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answered Dec 28, 2020 at 8:59

Raja J

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Comments

pippo1980 · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-28 08:37:51Z

using as input mbox-short.txt

From pippo
From pippo
From pippo
From pluto
From pluto
From papera
From papera
From pizza

using your code prova.py:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
"""
Created on Mon Dec 28 09:23:05 2020

@author: Pietro
"""
name = input("Enter file:")
if len(name) < 1 : name = "mbox-short.txt"
handle = open(name)
words = list()
count = dict()
for line in handle:
    line = line.rstrip()
    if line.startswith ('From'):
        y = line.split()
        print (y)
        words.append(y[1])
        x = y[1]
        print (x)
for w in words:
    count[w] = count.get(w, 0) + 1
print (count)

I get:

Pietro@?  in 65474269-Getting different output in Python programming  $: ./prova.py 
Enter file:
['From', 'pippo']
pippo
['From', 'pippo']
pippo
['From', 'pippo']
pippo
['From', 'pluto']
pluto
['From', 'pluto']
pluto
['From', 'papera']
papera
['From', 'papera']
papera
['From', 'pizza']
pizza
{'pippo': 3, 'pluto': 2, 'papera': 2, 'pizza': 1}

maybe your Python is damaged somehow ?? or mine is ?

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