Automating Task and Using
Command Line Argument
Objectives
In this session, you will learn to:
Automate Common Tasks.
Use File Names and Paths.
Use Command Line Arguments and Pipes.
Automating Common
Tasks
Python helps in automating the tasks that are commonly
implemented by using a computer system.
Some of the tasks which can be automated by Python are
Importing .csv files.
Extracting data from XML
Controlling the browser.
Accessing SQL via SQLite.
File Names and Paths
Any program which runs inside the OS of the computer
system has a current directory.
It is also called as current working directory used by a Python
program to open and read the files.
OS module (Operating System module) provides a set of
functions which helps a programmer in performing various
operations related with working on files and directories.
Some of the important functions are :-
getcwd()
abspath()
exists()
isdir()
isfile()
Just a Minute
isdir() method
returns False if path is an
existing directory.
1. True
2. False
Just a Minute
isdir() method
returns False if path is an
existing directory.
1. True
2. False
Answer: False
File Names and Paths
(Contd.)
getcwd() - Returns the name of the current directory.
Example:-
File Names and Paths
(Contd.)
abspath() - Finds the absolute path to a file.
Example:-
File Names and Paths
(Contd.)
exists() - Checks whether a file or directory exist.
Example:-
Command Line
Arguments
Command line arguments help the user to pass the argument
during the execution of the program using command prompt.
Python also uses command line arguments to pass the
values, such as file name or any data for variables of the
program.
Inside the program these arguments are accessible through
the list variable sys.argv.
The name of the script is included in this list at sys.argv[0]
where as sys.argv[1] contains the first parameter, sys.argv[2]
the second and so on.
While executing the program from the command prompt, the
arguments are placed after the program name. The command
line arguments are separated by spaces.
Command Line
Arguments (Contd.)
Example:
import sys
print 'Count',len(sys.argv)
print ('Type',type(sys.argv))
for arg in sys.argv:
print('Argument',arg)
Execution :-
python argumente.py python course for beginners
Output :-
argumente.py
python
course
for
beginners
Just a Minute
Inside the program
command line arguments
are accessible through the
list variable _________.
Just a Minute
Inside the program
command line arguments
are accessible through the
list variable _________.
Answer: Sys.argv
Pipes
Pipe is an important concept used in Unix and Linux OS. Small
elements can be put together using Pipes and the processing
of these elements are chained together by standard streams.
A pipe is an object in Python which represents a running
process. Any program that we can launch from the shell can
also be launched from Python program using a pipe.
Example:
A DOS command "dir" normally displays the content of the
current directory. We can launch dir with os.popen() in
Python.
Activity
Activity : Handling Files Using Command Line Argument
Problem Statement:
Write a program to perform file operation using command line
arguments.
Prerequisite: For this activity please refer “images” folder available in
“Data_File_For_Students” folder.
Summary
In this lesson, we learned:
Python can automate some of the tasks that commonly come across in
a daily routine.
A Python script can do a task which has to be done for hundreds of
files.
An operating System module provides the functions for working with
files and directories.
It is possible to pass some values from the command line to your
python programs when they are executed.
Parsing arguments is important for the program specially when there is
need to control from outside instead of hardcoding.
A pipe is an object that represents a running process.
