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Re: Python console rejects an object reference, having made an object with that reference as its name in previous line

From Ned Batchelder <ned@nedbatchelder.com>
Subject Re: Python console rejects an object reference, having made an object with that reference as its name in previous line
Date 2014-12-14 11:36 -0500
References <01937423-e700-4825-a502-568dcb2d5324@googlegroups.com>
Newsgroups comp.lang.python
Message-ID <mailman.16950.1418575028.18130.python-list@python.org> (permalink)

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On 12/14/14 11:15 AM, Simon Evans wrote:
> Dear Python programmers,
> Having input the line of code in text:
> cd Soup
> to the Windows console, and having put the file 'EcologicalPyramid.html' into the Directory 'Soup', on the C drive, in accordance with instructions I input the following code to the Python console, as given on page 30 of 'Getting Started with Beautiful Soup':
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Python 2.7.6 (default, Nov 10 2013, 19:24:18) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)] on win
> 32
> Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>> from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
>>>> with open("ecologicalpyramid.html","r") as ecological_pyramid:
> ...      soup = BeautifulSoup(ecological_pyramid,"lxml")
> ... producer_entries = soup.find("ul")
>
>             ^
> SyntaxError: invalid syntax

This SyntaxError is indicating that none of the code you have just typed 
was run.  The reason it's a syntax error is because the interactive 
prompt is a bit simplistic about how to handle multiple statements.  It 
wants a blank line after the with-clause.

Because none of these lines were run, you never opened your HTML file, 
never parsed it, and never assigned to the name "soup".

>>>> producer_entries = soup.find("ul")
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>    File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
> NameError: name 'soup' is not defined
>>>>
>             ^
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> so I cannot proceed with the next line withh would 've been :
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> print(producer_entries.li.div.string)
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> which would've given (according to the book) the output:
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> plants
>
> Maybe that is getting a bit far ahead, but I can't quite see where I have gone wrong - 'soup' has been defined as an object made of file 'EcologicalPyramid.html
>
> I hope you can help me on this point.

For complex code experiments, it's better to put the code in a file, and 
run the file.  But if you do want to use the interactive interpreter, 
enter code carefully, and watch out for the error messages.

-- 
Ned Batchelder, http://nedbatchelder.com

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Thread

Python console rejects an object reference, having made an object with that reference as its name in previous line Simon Evans <musicalhacksaw@yahoo.co.uk> - 2014-12-14 08:15 -0800
  Re: Python console rejects an object reference, having made an object with that reference as its name in previous line Ned Batchelder <ned@nedbatchelder.com> - 2014-12-14 11:36 -0500
  Re: Python console rejects an object reference, having made an object with that reference as its name in previous line Simon Evans <musicalhacksaw@yahoo.co.uk> - 2014-12-14 10:37 -0800
    Re: Python console rejects an object reference, having made an object with that reference as its name in previous line Jussi Piitulainen <jpiitula@ling.helsinki.fi> - 2014-12-14 20:51 +0200
  Re: Python console rejects an object reference, having made an object with that reference as its name in previous line Billy Earney <billy.earney@gmail.com> - 2014-12-14 10:43 -0600
  Re: Python console rejects an object reference, having made an object with that reference as its name in previous line Simon Evans <musicalhacksaw@yahoo.co.uk> - 2014-12-14 15:21 -0800
    Re: Python console rejects an object reference, having made an object with that reference as its name in previous line Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2014-12-15 11:36 +1100
    Re: Python console rejects an object reference, having made an object with that reference as its name in previous line Chris Roy-Smith <chris_roysmith@internode.on.net> - 2014-12-15 13:32 +1100
      Re: Python console rejects an object reference, having made an object with that reference as its name in previous line Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-12-15 13:42 +1100
      Re: Python console rejects an object reference, having made an object with that reference as its name in previous line Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2014-12-15 02:47 +0000
      Re: Python console rejects an object reference, having made an object with that reference as its name in previous line Michael Torrie <torriem@gmail.com> - 2014-12-14 22:27 -0700
      Re: Python console rejects an object reference, having made an object with that reference as its name in previous line Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-12-15 16:32 +1100
      Re: Python console rejects an object reference, having made an object with that reference as its name in previous line Michael Torrie <torriem@gmail.com> - 2014-12-14 22:38 -0700
      Re: Python console rejects an object reference, having made an object with that reference as its name in previous line Zachary Ware <zachary.ware+pylist@gmail.com> - 2014-12-14 23:51 -0600
      Re: Python console rejects an object reference, having made an object with that reference as its name in previous line Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-12-15 16:52 +1100
  Re: Python console rejects an object reference, having made an object with that reference as its name in previous line Simon Evans <musicalhacksaw@yahoo.co.uk> - 2014-12-18 08:19 -0800
    Re: Python console rejects an object reference, having made an object with that reference as its name in previous line Michael Torrie <torriem@gmail.com> - 2014-12-18 09:35 -0700
  Re: Python console rejects an object reference, having made an object with that reference as its name in previous line Simon Evans <musicalhacksaw@yahoo.co.uk> - 2015-01-04 04:49 -0800
    Re: Python console rejects an object reference, having made an object with that reference as its name in previous line Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2015-01-04 13:11 +0000
    Re: Python console rejects an object reference, having made an object with that reference as its name in previous line Dave Angel <davea@davea.name> - 2015-01-04 09:14 -0500

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