Array on python function

Question

Please help. It's really children's question but I'm at a loss. Why I can't to return array?

There is my script :

groups=[]
host_groups_list = '/usr/local/host_groups.list'
def read_file(file_path):
 open_file = open(host_groups_list, "r+")
 list=[]
 for i in open_file:
 list.append(str(i.replace("\n", "")))
 print list
 return list
goups = read_file(host_groups_list)
print groups

Output :

['hostgroup1', 'hostgroup2']
[]

• Remi Guan: 1. You didn't close that file after you open it. 2. A typo and use list as variable name as Mike said. 3. list.append(str(i.replace("\n", ""))), str() is useless here. 4. I think you mean open_file = open(file_path, "r+") instead of open_file = open(host_groups_list, "r+"). 5. groups = with open(''/usr/local/host_groups.list'') as f: [i.strip() for i in f].

Answer 1

Spelling is important:

goups = read_file(host_groups_list)
print groups

Note the missing r in goups.

You don't need the groups=[] in the beginning. Delete it and Python will give a name error for your print statement.

Better don't use list as a name for your variables because it shadows a built-in.

• GingerPlusPlus: @JustMe: use editor with auto-completion (I personally recommend Sublime Text 2) to avoid mistakes like this in future. And, don't create unneeded globals.