problem using differ

[Russell]

I'm trying to automate the comparison of some source code but I'm having
trouble using the differ object. I'm new to Python so I'm probably doing
something wrong. I've created a small program (included below) that
demonstrates my problem. For some reason, Python doesn't recognize differ.
I keep getting this error: NameError: name 'differ' is not defined. What am
I doing wrong?

Test Code follows:
import difflib

a=[]
a.append('1. Beautiful is better than ugly.')
a.append('2. Explicit is better than implicit.')
a.append('3. Simple is better than complex.')
a.append('4. Complex is better than complicated.')

b=[]
b.append('1. Beautiful is better than ugly.')
b.append('3. Simple is better than complex.')
b.append('4. Complicated is better than complex.')
b.append('5. Flat is better than nested.')

d=differ()
d.compare(a,b)

[Peter Otten]

Russell wrote:

I'm trying to automate the comparison of some source code but I'm having
trouble using the differ object. I'm new to Python so I'm probably doing
something wrong. I've created a small program (included below) that
demonstrates my problem. For some reason, Python doesn't recognize
differ.
I keep getting this error: NameError: name 'differ' is not defined. What
am I doing wrong?

Test Code follows:
import difflib

a=[]
a.append('1. Beautiful is better than ugly.')
a.append('2. Explicit is better than implicit.')
a.append('3. Simple is better than complex.')
a.append('4. Complex is better than complicated.')

b=[]
b.append('1. Beautiful is better than ugly.')
b.append('3. Simple is better than complex.')
b.append('4. Complicated is better than complex.')
b.append('5. Flat is better than nested.')

d=differ()
d.compare(a,b)

You have to tell Python where to find Differ.
Python is case sensitive: Differ != differ.
The compare() method returns a generator which you are discarding, making
the last statement useless.

Assuming you want to print the result, you could write:

d = difflib.Differ()
for line in d.compare(a, b):
print line

Peter

[Gary Richardson]

"Russell" <rp*******@knology.net> wrote in message
news:vs************@corp.supernews.com...

I'm trying to automate the comparison of some source code but I'm having
trouble using the differ object. I'm new to Python so I'm probably doing
something wrong. I've created a small program (included below) that
demonstrates my problem. For some reason, Python doesn't recognize differ. I keep getting this error: NameError: name 'differ' is not defined. What am I doing wrong?

Test Code follows:
import difflib

a=[]
a.append('1. Beautiful is better than ugly.')
a.append('2. Explicit is better than implicit.')
a.append('3. Simple is better than complex.')
a.append('4. Complex is better than complicated.')

b=[]
b.append('1. Beautiful is better than ugly.')
b.append('3. Simple is better than complex.')
b.append('4. Complicated is better than complex.')
b.append('5. Flat is better than nested.')

d=differ()
d.compare(a,b)

d=difflib.Differ()
for k in range(4):
dif = d.compare(a[k], b[k])
for p in dif:
print p,
print

[Russell]

Gary and Peter

I appreciate your response. As you both point out in your replies I failed
to qualify my use of 'Differ()' by prefixing it with difflib (as well typing
the case properly). Once I made this correction I was able to continue.