Saving of Information in Python Along with Retrieving It

Question

The purpose of the two programs is to have twitter.py manage tweet.py by having the 5 most recent tweets that are saved in the program twitter.py to show up once you search and find it. There are four options, make a tweet, view recents tweets, search a tweet and quit. I'm having trouble saving because it keeps saying no recent tweets are found. Also I'm having trouble with the fact that I can't search for my tweets but that is probably the same reason as my first problem because they aren't being saved correctly. Thank you please help!!

tweet.py

import time
class tweet:

        def __init__(self, author, text):

            self.__author = author
            self.__text = text
            self.__age = time.time()

        def get_author(self):

            return self.__author

        def get_text(self):

            return self.__text

        def get_age(self):
            now = time.time()

            difference = now - self.__time

            hours = difference // 3600

            difference = difference % 3600

            minutes = difference // 60

            seconds = difference % 60


            # Truncate units of time and convert them to strings for output
            hours = str(int(hours))
            minutes = str(int(minutes))
            seconds = str(int(seconds))

            # Return formatted units of time
            return hours + ":" + minutes + ":" + seconds

twitter.py

import tweet
import pickle

MAKE=1
VIEW=2
SEARCH=3
QUIT=4

FILENAME = 'tweets.dat'

def main():
    mytweets = load_tweets()

    choice = 0

    while choice != QUIT:
        choice = get_menu_choice()

        if choice == MAKE:
            add(mytweets)
        elif choice == VIEW:
            recent(mytweets)
        elif choice == SEARCH:
            find(mytweets)
        else:
            print("\nThanks for using the Twitter manager!")

    save_tweets(mytweets)

def load_tweets():
    try:
        input_file = open(FILENAME, 'rb')

        tweet_dct = pickle.load(input_file)

        input_file.close()

    except IOError:
        tweet_dct = {}

    return tweet_dct

def get_menu_choice():
    print()
    print('Tweet Menu')
    print("----------")
    print("1. Make a Tweet")
    print("2. View Recent Tweets")
    print("3. Search Tweets")
    print("4. Quit")
    print()


    try:
        choice = int(input("What would you like to do? "))
        if choice < MAKE or choice > QUIT:
            print("\nPlease select a valid option.")

    except ValueError:
        print("\nPlease enter a numeric value.")

    return choice

def add(mytweets):

    author = input("\nWhat is your name? ")
    while True:
        text = input("what would you like to tweet? ")
        if len(text) > 140:
            print("\ntweets can only be 140 characters!")
            continue
        else:
            break




    entry = tweet.tweet(author, text)
    print("\nYour tweet has been saved!")



def recent(mytweets):

    print("\nRecent Tweets")
    print("-------------")
    if len(mytweets) == 0:
        print("There are no recent tweets. \n")
    else:
        for tweets in mytweets[-5]:
            print(tweets.get_author, "-", tweets.get_age)
            print(tweets.get_text, "\n")



def find(mytweets):
    author = input("What would you like to search for? ")
    if author in mytweets:
        print("\nSearch Results")
        print("----------------")
        print(tweet.tweet.get_author(), - tweet.tweet.get_age())
        print(tweet.tweet.get_text())
    else:
        print("\nSearch Results")
        print("--------------")
        print("No tweets contained ", author)

def save_tweets(mytweets):
    output_file = open(FILENAME, 'wb')

    pickle.dump(mytweets, output_file)

    output_file.close()

main()

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 07 '15 at 22:30

0

In twitter.py:add_tweets, mytweets is passed into the function and entry is created, but it is never added to mytweets. The created entry is lost after the function returns.

answered Dec 07 '15 at 22:30

Mark Tolonen

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score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:52

Your question was:

I'm having trouble saving because it keeps saying no recent tweets are found.

Function add does not seem to be adding tweets anywhere. It creates a tweet.tweet instance, but it does not do anything with it.

You probably want to add the tweet to mytweets?

Another problem: You initialize mytweets as a dicionary (tweet_dct = {}), but later you use it as a list (mytweets[-5]). It should be a list from start. And you probably want last five tweets (mytweets[-5:]), not just the fifth from the end.

On the sidenotes:

What you have here is not "two programs" - it is one program in two python files, or "modules"

Although there is nothing wrong with having getters (functions like get_author), there is no need for them in Python (see How does the @property decorator work?). Do youself a favour and keep it simple, e.g.:

class Tweet:
    def __init__(self, author, text):
        self.author = author
        self.text = text
        self.creation_time = time.time()

    def get_age_as_string(self):
        # your code from get_age

There will be time when you need private variables. When that happens, use a single leading underscore (self._author) until you fully understand what double underscore does and why.

Pickle is probably not the best way to store information here, but it is a good start for learning.

Saving of Information in Python Along with Retrieving It

2 Answers2