Python - Random baby name generator issues - (duplicating input, calling variables)

Question

I've been looking at this all afternoon and can't figure out why the gender input is repeating itself despite only appearing to be called once. It's not part of a loop that I can see either.

I've tried adding variables to act as a counter and tried using an if statement to only run the input if the counter variable is less than 1, but can't figure it out.

Edit: Thanks to the great feedback here, I found out that get_full_name was causing the duplicating gender input in get_first_name - but now I'm running into issues when trying to output the randomly generated first & middle names.

I figured setting the setFirst, setMiddle and setLast variables as globals, but then I get a NameError. I also tried creating a new function to display them, but that wasn't working either. I tried adding "self." (without the quotes) either directly in the function() or one of the indents beneath it.

I'll display the error first, then the full code.

Error: Traceback (most recent call last):
File "init.py", line 100, in main()
File "init.py", line 92, in main
print displayName(setFirst, setMiddle, setLast)
NameError: global name 'setFirst' is not defined

I also get name errors trying to concatenate setFirst, setMiddle and setLast into another variable for the full name.

Here's the code:

from os.path import abspath, join, dirname
import random

full_path = lambda filename: abspath(join(dirname(__file__), filename))


FILES = {
    'first:male': full_path('dist.male.first'),
    'first:female': full_path('dist.female.first'),
    'last': full_path('dist.all.last'),
}


def get_name(filename):
    selected = random.random() * 90
    with open(filename) as name_file:
        for line in name_file:
            name, _, cummulative, _ = line.split()
            if float(cummulative) > selected:
                return name


def get_first_name(gender=None):
    global determine
    global setFirst

    print ("First name... Enter 1 for Male, 2 for Female or 3 to be surprised! ")
    determine = input()

    if determine == 1:
        gender = 'male'
    if determine == 2:
        gender = 'female'
    if determine == 3:
        print ("You want to be surprised!")
        gender = random.choice(('male', 'female'))

    return get_name(FILES['first:%s' % gender]).capitalize()
    setFirst = get_first_name()
    print setFirst + " "

def get_middle_name(gender=None):
    global setMiddle

    if determine == 1:
        gender = 'male'
    if determine == 2:
        gender = 'female'
    if determine == 3:
        gender = random.choice(('male', 'female'))

    return get_name(FILES['first:%s' % gender]).capitalize()
    setMiddle = get_middle_name()
    print setMiddle + " "

def get_last_name():
    global setLast

    #We will implicitly pass a Last Name until other issues are fixed
    return “Smith”

    setLast = get_last_name()
    print setLast

def get_full_name(gender=None):
    return u"%s %s %s" % (get_first_name(gender), get_middle_name(gender), get_last_name())

#def displayName(setFirst, setMiddle, setLast):
#    print setFirst + " " + setMiddle + " " + setLast

def main():
    #print u"%s %s %s" % (setFirst, setMiddle, setLast)
    #print displayName(setFirst, setMiddle, setLast)

    f = open('output', 'a') #append output to filename output
    f.write(get_full_name() + '\n') #and add a line break after each run
    f.close()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Even if I try passing the variables to main() like:

def main(setFirst, setMiddle, setLast):

It still gives the NameError about not being defined. What am I doing wrong?

I added this right under "import random", but now I'm getting some rogue "None" displays - which leads me to believe there is a leak in the code somewhere. Thoughts?

setFirst = None
setMiddle = None
setLast = None

Here is the function I created to try to track it: def displayName(setFirst, setMiddle, setLast):

if setFirst == None:
    print ("Random Baby Name Generator")

else:
    print setFirst
    print setMiddle
    print setLast

if setMiddle == None:
    print ("Double check the middle name variable.")

if setLast == None:
    print ("Double check the last name variable.")

What do you mean by "the gender input is repeating itself"? We don't have these files, and we can't see what's happening. Yuu're going to have to tell us. — saulspatz
You appear to be calling get_full_name() twice, once to print and once to write. This means get_first_name gets called twice, asking for gender each time. Maybe you want to save the name to a variable and print/write the same value? — zehnpaard
I tried to run your code (interpreter 3.5), I got a KeyError when accessing the FILES dict, due the way you handle gender input. You should create an int from the str typed determine input read from the console like this: determine = input() determine = int(determine) — Szilárd Németh
I think saving get_full_name()'s result into a local variable and use that variable in write() is the way to go. — Szilárd Németh

Burhan Khalid Burhan Khalid · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-11T22:36:44

You are calling get_full_name() twice, you need to save the results:

def main():
    full_name = get_full_name()
    print(full_name)
    f = open('output', 'a') #append output to filename output
    f.write(full_name + '\n') #and add a line break after each run
    f.close()

You also have a few indentation issues as well, plus your use of globals is a bit inefficient. Ideally, functions should do one - and only one - task; this makes them easier to debug.

Try this different version of your code:

from os.path import abspath, join, dirname
import random

full_path = lambda filename: abspath(join(dirname(__file__), filename))


FILES = {
    'first:male': full_path('dist.male.first'),
    'first:female': full_path('dist.female.first'),
    'last': full_path('dist.all.last'),
}

GENDER_MAP = {'1': 'male', '2': 'female'}

def get_gender():
    result = input('Select a gender: 1 for Male, 2 for Female or 3 to be surprised')
    if result not in ('1', '2', '3'):
       print('{} is not a valid choice, please try again'.format(result))
       return get_gender()
    if result == '3':
       return random.choice(('1', '2'))
    return result

def get_name(filename):
    selected = random.random() * 90
    with open(filename) as name_file:
        for line in name_file:
            name, _, cummulative, _ = line.split()
            if float(cummulative) > selected:
                return name

def get_name_from_file(name_type='first', gender='male'):
    if name_type in ('first','middle',):
        name = get_name(FILES['{}:{}'.format(name_type, gender)]).capitalize()
    else:
        name = get_name(FILES['last']).capitalize()
    return name

def get_full_name():
    gender = get_gender()
    gender_file = GENDER_MAP.get(gender, '')
    first_name = get_name_from_file('first', gender_file)
    middle_name = get_name_from_file('middle', gender_file)
    last_name = get_name_from_file('last')

    return '{} {} {}'.format(first_name, middle_name, last_name)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    name = get_full_name()
    print(full_name)
    with open('output', 'a') as f:
       f.write('{}\n'.format(full_name))
    print('Done')

Python - Random baby name generator issues - (duplicating input, calling variables)

2 Answers