Python and if statement

Question

I'm running a script to feed an exe file a statement like below:

for j in ('90.','52.62263.','26.5651.','10.8123.'):
    if j == '90.':
        z = ('0.')
    elif j == '52.62263.':
        z = ('0.', '72.', '144.', '216.', '288.')
    elif j == '26.5651':
        z = ('324.', '36.', '108.', '180.', '252.')
    else:
        z = ('288.', '0.', '72.', '144.', '216.')

    for k in z:

        exepath = os.path.join('\Program Files' , 'BRL-CAD' , 'bin' , 'rtarea.exe')
        exepath = '"' + os.path.normpath(exepath) + '"'
        cmd = exepath + '-j' + str(el) + '-k' + str(z)

        process=Popen('echo ' + cmd, shell=True, stderr=STDOUT )
        print process

I'm using the command prompt and when I run the exe with these numbers there are times when It doesn't seem to be in order. Like sometimes it will print out 3 statements of the 52.62263 but then before they all are printed it will print out a single 26.5651 and then go back to 52.62263. It's not just those numbers that act like this. Different runs it may be different numbers (A 52.62263 between "two" 90 statements) . All in all, I want it to print it in order top to bottom. Any suggestions and using my code any helpful solutions? thanks!

Answer 1

I think what's happening right now is that you are not waiting for those processes to finish before they're printed. Try something like this in your last 2 lines:

from subprocess import Popen, STDOUT
stdout, stderr = Popen('echo ' + cmd, shell=True, stderr=STDOUT).communicate()
print stdout

Answer 2

z = ('0.') is not a tuple, therefore your for k in z loop will iterate over the characters "0" and ".". Add a comma to tell python you want it to be a tuple:

z = ('0.',)

Answer 3

What eduffy said. And this is a little cleaner; just prints, but you get the idea:

import os

data = {
    '90.': ('0.',),
    '52.62263.': ('0.', '72.', '144.', '216.', '288.'),
    '26.5651.': ('324.', '36.', '108.', '180.', '252.'),
    '10.8123.': ('288.', '0.', '72.', '144.', '216.'),
}

for tag in data:
    for k in data[tag]:
        exepath = os.path.join('\Program Files', 'BRL-CAD', 'bin', 'rtarea.exe')
        exepath = '"' + os.path.normpath(exepath) + '"'
        cmd = exepath + ' -el ' + str(tag) + ' -az ' + str(data[tag])
        process = 'echo ' + cmd
        print process

Answer 4

Since you've made a few posts about this bit of code, allow me to just correct/pythonify/beautify the whole thing:

for j,z in {
        '90.'       : ('0.',) ,
        '52.62263.' : ('0.',   '72.', '144.', '216.', '288.') ,
        '26.5651.'  : ('324.', '36.', '108.', '180.', '252.') ,
        '10.8123.'  : ('288.', '0.',  '72.',  '144.', '216.')
    }.iteritems():

    for k in z:
        exepath = os.path.join('\Program Files' , 'BRL-CAD', 'bin' , 'rtarea.exe')
        exepath = '"%s"' % os.path.normpath(exepath)
        cmd = exepath + '-j' + str(el) + '-k' + z

        process = Popen('echo ' + cmd, shell=True, stderr=STDOUT )
        print process