Can run script line by line in shell, but full script returns nothing

Question

I'm using a script that extracts text from a PDF file. If I run my script one line at a time in the shell, it works fine (i.e. the extracted text is returned in the shell window), but if I try and execute the entire script, nothing gets returned. The script is as follows:

import PyPDF2
pdfFileObj = open('c:\Python27\meetingminutes.pdf', 'rb') 
pdfReader = PyPDF2.PdfFileReader(pdfFileObj) 
pdfReader.numPages 
pageObj = pdfReader.getPage(0) 
pageObj.extractText()

I'm very new to Python, so all help is appreciated!

• Phylogenesis: print(pageObj.extractText())
• Robᵩ: "I'm very new to Python" - In that case, may I suggest that you stop what you are doing and read the Python Tutorial? It will answer this and many other questions even before you ask them.

Answer 1

The Python shell echoes the results of expressions. In a script, you need to explicitly print your results:

print pageObj.extractText()

If Python where to behave differently, you could never write a script that remained silent.

Technically speaking, what the Python interactive shell does is use the repr() function, so every expression (unless it produces None) is written using print repr(<expression outcome>). print without repr() would use the str() function instead.

• Martijn Pieters: @RolfofSaxony: typo / thinko. The interactive interpreter is also called a REPL, a Read, Evaluate, Print Loop, which is probably why I slipped up.