unable to read a string of file names from a text file

Question

I am trying to make a slide show and have all of the image paths stored in 1 text file to make the main code a bit cleaner, here is the main code :

import tkinter as tk
from itertools import cycle
from PIL import ImageTk, Image

images = open('list.txt', 'r').read()
print(images)

photos = cycle(ImageTk.PhotoImage(Image.open(image)) for image in images)

def slideShow():
  img = next(photos)
  displayCanvas.config(image=img)
  root.after(1200, slideShow) 

root = tk.Tk()
root.overrideredirect(True)
width = root.winfo_screenwidth()
height = root.winfo_screenwidth()
root.geometry('%dx%d' % (1600, 900))
displayCanvas = tk.Label(root)
displayCanvas.pack()
root.after(1000, lambda: slideShow())
root.mainloop()

and here is a download for the list file, in case it needs reformatting or something: https://drive.google.com/open?id=17PzCCf6DK9L-8q4ZxVe7bPD1kFlIuZts

I currently get this error when I try to run the code FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '[' I have tried formatting it in different ways, nothing worked it all just had whatever the first character was and then "no such file or directory"

its not , atleast in notepad ++ it is formatted like this `["example1.jpg","example2.jpg","example3.jpg"]` just a lot longer and actual file names — anytarsier67, Dec 02 '19 at 05:58
And I think you are calling the file which is not in current working directory — Adam Strauss, Dec 02 '19 at 05:59
Is there a reason you're storing a formatted list within the file instead of names on separate lines? — OneCricketeer, Dec 02 '19 at 05:59
I think @cricket_007 raises a very good point. In any case, couldn’t you use `ast.literal_eval()` for this? You could probably parse it as JSON, too. Also, you should use context managers to handle files. — AMC, Dec 02 '19 at 06:33
@AlexanderCécile i am very new to this kind of thing , i used the way i knew how to from previous projects, it may not be a good way , but it works. — anytarsier67, Dec 02 '19 at 06:37
@anytarsier67 I’m not reprimanding you, don’t worry! :) It’s just a few suggestions. — AMC, Dec 02 '19 at 06:38
Does this answer your question? [Convert string representation of list to list](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1894269/convert-string-representation-of-list-to-list) — AMC, Dec 02 '19 at 19:54

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 02 '19 at 06:03

1

Just replace

images = open('list.txt', 'r').read()
print(images)

with

images =[]
with open('list.txt', 'r') as f:
    lines = f.read().strip('[]')
    images = [i.strip("\" ") for i in lines.split(',')]

Your text file is formatted differently. All I did is strip the text file of [] and then split them with , delimiter and then removed the trailing white spaces and the ".
Hope this helps you :)

answered Dec 02 '19 at 06:03

Debdut Goswami

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so the list.txt would be `example1.jpg,example2.jpg` and so on ? – anytarsier67 Dec 02 '19 at 06:14
yes. and don't worry you need not format the text file. I have written the code to adapt to your text file. – Debdut Goswami Dec 02 '19 at 06:15
do you mean it will work with the version that i have up for download? – anytarsier67 Dec 02 '19 at 06:18
yes. it would work absolutely fine. I have tested it. – Debdut Goswami Dec 02 '19 at 06:18
glad I could be of help :) – Debdut Goswami Dec 02 '19 at 06:22
a new problem has appeared, would you be able to help me figure out why most of the images are getting cut off. – anytarsier67 Dec 02 '19 at 06:32
what do you mean by cut off? – Debdut Goswami Dec 02 '19 at 06:34
i will only see a small part of the image , like most of it will be off screen , i think it is because they are all diffrent resolutions. – anytarsier67 Dec 02 '19 at 06:35
yeah even I think so, but I guess `tkinter` has specific functions to resolve that. You can try adjusting the resolution or try to find that specific function. I am not quite familiar with tkinter so I guess I am not the right person to advice you on this. – Debdut Goswami Dec 02 '19 at 06:37
well guess im in for some diggin. – anytarsier67 Dec 02 '19 at 06:39
yeah you can create another SO question :p – Debdut Goswami Dec 02 '19 at 06:41
This fails if any of the elements of the list contain a comma. The `r` option is redundant, since it's the default. There is also no need to escape the double quote: `i.strip("\" ")` --> `i.strip('" ')`. – AMC Dec 02 '19 at 19:57
the list doesn't seem to contain a `,` moreover, even if it does contain, all he gotta do is to insert a `,` in the strip function. I am also aware of the fact that `r` is redundant here but as he is a new contributor, I considered keeping it as much less confusing as possible :) – Debdut Goswami Dec 02 '19 at 21:28

OneCricketeer · Answer 2 · 2019-12-02T06:21:08.983

0

You're calling .read() on the file, which loads everything to a string.

Then you're looping over the string, character by character, trying to open the character as an image

If you have names on each line, then you want this

with open('list.txt', 'r') as f:
    images = f.readlines()
    print(images)
    photos = cycle(ImageTk.PhotoImage(Image.open(image.rstrip())) for image in images)

If your file is formatted any differently, you'll need to parse it first into a list of image file names

edited Dec 02 '19 at 06:21

answered Dec 02 '19 at 05:58

OneCricketeer

179,855
19
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how would i format the list.txt for this? would it be like ``` example1.jpg example2.jpg ``` or would i need symbols around it? EDIT: i cant get the formatting right it is supposed to be the fine name and extension then right to the next line – anytarsier67 Dec 02 '19 at 06:01
No symbols. Just file names by themselves on each line – OneCricketeer Dec 02 '19 at 06:01
1

You can format the file any number of different ways; you just need to have code that handles the format you use. – Karl Knechtel Dec 02 '19 at 06:01
it gave me this error `OSError: [Errno 22] Invalid argument: '11385a9.jpg\n'` that file is in the active directory, so i dont know what this means – anytarsier67 Dec 02 '19 at 06:06
Try `Image.open(image.rstrip()))` – OneCricketeer Dec 02 '19 at 06:08
sorry i am very new to this and also sleep deprived, where should i put that? – anytarsier67 Dec 02 '19 at 06:16
In place of the existing `Image.open()` call – OneCricketeer Dec 02 '19 at 06:20

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 02 '19 at 06:01

open('list.txt', 'r').read()

This reads the entire file as a single string, without heed to what that string actually looks like.

cycle(ImageTk.PhotoImage(Image.open(image)) for image in images)

This tries to use each element of images for an Image.open call. Since images is a single string (produced by the previous line), its elements are the individual characters of that string (as 1-character strings). Hence '[' as the first of them.

It seems as though you expected to write the string representation of a list to a file, and then get the actual corresponding list back automatically by reading the file. This does not work. You need to actually interpret the file contents to build the list.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 02 '19 at 06:06

0

Accidently you created JSON file which you can convert back to Python's list with module json

import json

images = json.loads(open('list.txt').read())

print(images[0])

answered Dec 02 '19 at 06:06

furas

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score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

0

1.

import json

with open('../resources/list.txt') as list_file:
    list_res = json.load(list_file)

2.

from ast import literal_eval

with open('../resources/list.txt') as list_file:
    list_res = literal_eval(list_file.read())

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

1
1

answered Dec 02 '19 at 19:56

AMC

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unable to read a string of file names from a text file

5 Answers5

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