difficulties with python assignment

Question

I am new to programing and am having difficulties writing a program dealing with files. The program is to read a file, calculate an employees pay and an updated YTD pay total. After calculations the program will write to a new file.

This is what I have so far:

empName = ""
prevYTD = 0.0
payRate = 0.0
hoursWorked = 0.0
recordCount = 0

def startUp():
    global empFile
    print "\n\n" + "PAYROLL REPORT".center(110)+"\n"
    print "Employee Name".ljust(30) + "Previous YTD".ljust(18) + \
          "Updated YTD".ljust(18) + "Pay Rate".ljust(13) + \
          "Hours Worked".ljust(19) + "Current Pay".ljust(8)
    print "-"* 109

    jobInfo = open("payroll_Assignment#7.txt", "r")

def readFile():
    global empName, prevYTD, payRate, hoursWorked, eof
    empRec = jobInfo.readline()
    if empRec == "":
        eof = True
    else:
        empName = empRec[:25]
        prevYTD = float(empRec[25:40])
        payRate = float(empRec[40:55])
        hoursWorked = float(empRec[55:])
        eof = False

def processRecords():
    global recordCount
    while not eof:
        recordCount +=1
        printRecord()
        readFile()


def printRecord():
    print empName, prevYTD, payRate, hoursWorked


def closeUp(): 
    jobInfo.close()
    print "\nNumber of records in the file was",recordCount

startUp()
readFile()
processRecords()
printRecord()
closeUp() 

My problem is making a new file. The program is suppose to write to a new file and I don't know how to do it. Sorry for being so clumsy with this, I'm very new to it.

Answer 1

Not sure what the problem is but some idiom can make it easy for you.

1. You can avoid testing for EOF and the while loop.

File is iteratable hence you can iterate over it.

for line in open('myfile','r'):
    doSomething(line)

See the details at : http://docs.python.org/tutorial/inputoutput.html

[Edit: Based on revised problem]

Opening a new file for writing should be easy in python

>>> logfile = open('test.log', 'w') # Opens a new file
>>> logfile = open('test.log', 'a') # Opens a existing file to append information

Look at the various modes of opening file in Python tutorial

• http://docs.python.org/tutorial/inputoutput.html#reading-and-writing-files
• http://docs.python.org/library/functions.html#open

Answer 2

Thank you for your answers. The program is to read a file, calculate employee pay and update the YTD total. After the calculations the program is to write a new file. I can not figure out how to do the calculations, make, write, or save the updated file.