sorting scores from a text file highest to lowest and getting the error tuple index out of range

Question

I have a text file with students scores from taking a test and I need to find each students highest score and then print each students highest score, in the order of highest to lowest.

My code is down below however I keep getting tuple index out of range.

classChoice = str(input('What class scores would you like to view; rat, wolf or polar bear '))
fileName = 'results/' + classChoice + ".txt"
# init a list where you store the results
results = []
# open the file with results in a "read" mode
with open(fileName, "r") as fileinput:
# for each line in file with results, do following
    for line in fileinput:
    # remove whitespaces at the end of the line and split the line by ":"
    items = line.strip().split(":")
    # store the result as a list of tuples
    results.append(tuple(items))

# first it sorts all the tuples in `results` tuple by the second item (score)
# for each result record in sorted results list do the following
for result_item in sorted(results, key=lambda x: x[1], reverse=True):
# print the result in the format of the scores in your file 
    print ("{}:{}".format(result_item[0], result_item[1]))

Where are you getting the error? Can you provide the full traceback? — dirn, Aug 30 '15 at 14:56

Martijn Pieters · Answer 1 · 2015-08-30T14:54:29.923

You have at least one tuple that doesn't have 2 values. This means you have empty lines, or lines with no : character in them:

>>> 'student\n'.strip().split(':')
['student']
>>> len('student\n'.strip().split(':'))
1
>>> '\n'.strip().split(':')
['']
>>> '\n'.strip().split(':')[1]
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
IndexError: list index out of range

Guard against this by testing for the : character, or the length of the resulting items list.

Testing for : is easy enough:

for line in fileinput:
    if not ':' in line:
        # not a valid line, empty or not a key-value pair
        continue
    items = line.strip().split(":")
    # store the result as a list of tuples
    results.append(tuple(items))

score -1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:26

-1

I think maybe that's because you forgot to tab the lines of reading from the file. Try to tab lines 9-12.

That'll help you Short Description of the Scoping Rules?

edited May 23 '17 at 10:26

Community

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answered Aug 30 '15 at 14:31

wa11a

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sorry im new to python what does that mean – charlotte knight Aug 30 '15 at 14:33
In python an indentation is a scope. You need to add those lines to the for scope. – wa11a Aug 30 '15 at 14:34
its now saying unexpected indent – charlotte knight Aug 30 '15 at 14:37
Which line has the unexpected indent? – wa11a Aug 30 '15 at 14:41
Indentation issues won't produce shorter tuples here. – Martijn Pieters Aug 30 '15 at 14:47

sorting scores from a text file highest to lowest and getting the error tuple index out of range

2 Answers2