Loop through multiple lists simultaneously?

Question

I am looking for some help with loops. I have a name list, and I'm looking to sequentially message each profile from that list with a random user inputted message.

Ideally this would involve looping through the profileLink items while simultaneously looping through the nameList items so that I can build a new messageInput for each profile.

My code works, but currently has a lot of duplication and to build this to support a larger list will involve a lot of copying and pasting, as you can see below - How would you go about this?

messageInput0="Hi " + f'{namelist[0]}' + ", " + f'{choice(messageOptions)}'
messageInput1="Hi " + f'{namelist[1]}' + ", " + f'{choice(messageOptions)}'
messageInput2="Hi " + f'{namelist[2]}' + ", " + f'{choice(messageOptions)}'
messageInput3="Hi " + f'{namelist[3]}' + ", " + f'{choice(messageOptions)}'
messageInput4="Hi " + f'{namelist[4]}' + ", " + f'{choice(messageOptions)}'

webbrowser.open(profileLink[0])
time.sleep(6)
pyautogui.press('tab')
pyautogui.write(messageInput0, interval=random.uniform(0.03, 0.15))

with pyautogui.hold('command'):
    pyautogui.press('w')

webbrowser.open(profileLink[1])
time.sleep(6)
pyautogui.press('tab')
pyautogui.write(messageInput1, interval=random.uniform(0.03, 0.15))

with pyautogui.hold('command'):
    pyautogui.press('w')

webbrowser.open(profileLink[2])
time.sleep(6)
pyautogui.press('tab')
pyautogui.write(messageInput2, interval=random.uniform(0.03, 0.15))

with pyautogui.hold('command'):
    pyautogui.press('w')

    webbrowser.open(profileLink[3])
time.sleep(6)
pyautogui.press('tab')
pyautogui.write(messageInput3, interval=random.uniform(0.03, 0.15))

with pyautogui.hold('command'):
    pyautogui.press('w')

    webbrowser.open(profileLink[4])
time.sleep(6)
pyautogui.press('tab')
pyautogui.write(messageInput4, interval=random.uniform(0.03, 0.15))

with pyautogui.hold('command'):
    pyautogui.press('w')

EDIT: After trying the top answer, I got the error that list object has no attribute 'replace'

Worth mentioning my list is built using str.replace/str.split functions, like so:

profileLink = open("profiles.txt").read().splitlines()

profileLink = [item.replace("+","name=") for item in profileLink]
newLinks = [item.replace("%","name=") for item in profileLink]
nameList = [i.split("name=")[1] for i in newLinks]

EDIT 2: First edit was actually an unrelated error. Fixed now.

Does this answer your question? [How do I iterate through two lists in parallel?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1663807/how-do-i-iterate-through-two-lists-in-parallel) — Donnie, Sep 28 '22 at 10:51

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 28 '22 at 10:52

5

Like so.

Use zip to "zip up" the name and profile link and you don't have to keep track of loop indexes.

import random
import time
import pyautogui
import webbrowser

namelist = ["a", "b", "c", "d"]
profilelink = ["q", "w", "e", "r"]
messageOptions = ["bye", "hello"]

for name, link in zip(namelist, profilelink):
    message = f"Hi {name}, {random.choice(messageOptions)}"

    webbrowser.open(link)
    time.sleep(6)
    pyautogui.press("tab")
    pyautogui.write(message, interval=random.uniform(0.03, 0.15))

    with pyautogui.hold("command"):
        pyautogui.press("w")

answered Sep 28 '22 at 10:52

AKX

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This almost got me there, some added context: I am creating the profileLink list and nameList with split and replace operations `profileLink = open("profiles.txt").read().splitlines() profileLink = [item.replace("+","name=") for item in profileLink] newLinks = [item.replace("%","name=") for item in profileLink] nameList = [i.split("name=")[1] for i in newLinks] ` As a result when I run this code, I am getting an error that the list object has no attribute 'replace' – dan.rad Sep 28 '22 at 11:15
I've tried formatting as a string literal but it seems the webbrowser command won't work on a string literal? – dan.rad Sep 28 '22 at 11:17
1

That error is unrelated to this code, and as far as I can see there's nothing there that could throw that error. – AKX Sep 28 '22 at 11:45
You are correct. This is solved now. Thank you for your help. – dan.rad Sep 29 '22 at 16:10

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 28 '22 at 12:37

1

This is how I'd do it:

import random
import time
import webbrowser


def messageInput(nameList, profileLink):
    for name in nameList:
        message = "Hi " + f'{name}' + ", " + f'{choice(messageOptions)}'
        for profile in profileLink:
            webbrowser.open(profile)
            time.sleep(6)
            pyautogui.press('tab')
            pyautogui.write(message, interval=random.uniform(0.03, 0.15))

        with pyautogui.hold('command'):
            pyautogui.press('w')

edited Sep 28 '22 at 12:37

Sunderam Dubey

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answered Sep 28 '22 at 11:06

MoroccanTea

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I've tried this and the browser doesn't launch - could be to do with how I've built the list? (see my recent edit) – dan.rad Sep 28 '22 at 11:34
Could you give me an example of how your data looks inside profilelink ? just random data so that i see how it looks – MoroccanTea Sep 28 '22 at 11:44
I tried the top comment again and seemed to get it to work. Thanks for your help. – dan.rad Sep 29 '22 at 16:11
1

But the data was just URLs, each on a new line :)' – dan.rad Sep 29 '22 at 16:11

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 28 '22 at 10:52

0

Use a for loop:

for i in range(len(profileLink)):
    webbrowser.open(profileLink[i])
    time.sleep(6)
    pyautogui.press('tab')
    message = f'Hi {namelist[i]}, {choice(messageOptions)}'
    pyautogui.write(message, interval=random.uniform(0.03, 0.15))

answered Sep 28 '22 at 10:52

Mathias R. Jessen

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Using `for i in range(len(...))` is not quite Pythonic... – AKX Sep 28 '22 at 10:53
1

@AKX What makes it... non-pythonic? – Mathias R. Jessen Sep 28 '22 at 10:56
The Pythonic way to iterate over a single iterable with indices, you'd use `for i, x in enumerate(l)`, but since you're only using `i` to be able to index into the other "parallel" list you don't need it at all; you'd use `for x, y in zip()` to iterate them in in parallel. – AKX Sep 28 '22 at 11:46
1

@AKX `zip()` is obviously a better solution here, but I wasn't aware iterating over `range(len(...))` (vs directly over `enumerate(...)`) was considered an antipattern, thanks! – Mathias R. Jessen Sep 28 '22 at 11:48
1

One more data point (that's not relevant in _this_ case): `range(len())` won't work if you can't know the length of iterable, and considering [There should be one obvious way to do it. ](https://peps.python.org/pep-0020/) using a different pattern for lengthable iterables vs. others seems non-Pythonic :) – AKX Sep 28 '22 at 11:50

Loop through multiple lists simultaneously?

3 Answers3