> > I am trying to take some data in   file that looks like this

> > command colnum_1 columnum_2

> > and look for the command and then cange the value in the collum(word)
> > number indicated.  I am under
> > the impression I need enumerate but I am not sure what to do with it
> > any help would be nice.

> > import sys

> > parse1filerows = []
> > csoundrows = []

> > filename = sys.argv[0]
> > number = sys.argv[1]
> > outfile = open('test.sco','w')

> > infile = open(filename, 'r')
> > for line in infile:
> >   csoundrows.append(line.split())
> > parsefile = open('parsefile1.txt', 'r')
> > for line in parsefile:
> >   parsefile1rows.append(line.split())
> > for row in csoundrows:
> >   for prow in parsefile1rows:
> >     test = 0
> >     if parsefile1[prow][0] in csoundrow[row]:
> >       for pcol in parsefile1[prow]:
> >         if test == 1:
> >           csoundrows[row][int(pcol)] = str(int(csoundrows[row]
> > [int(pcol)] + number)
> > for row in csoundrows:
> >   for word in rows:
> >     outfile.write(row)

> Rather confusing code there and non-functional.

> You never close your file handles, when finished with a file use the
> .close() method
> sys.argv[0]  <-- the first element is the name of your .py file and
> not
>                  the first argument you supply.
> When iterating over a list like csoundrows you don't need to do
> for row in csoundrows:
>     if ... in csoundrow[row]:  # This will try to use 'row' as an
> index

>     but rather

>     if ... in row:

> Now, this is how I intepretted your question.

> from sys import argv, exit

> if len(argv) != 3:
>     """Ensure the correct number of arguments are supplied"""
>     exit('Incorrect number of arguments.')

> try:
>     """Checks if the Input file exists and exits if open fails."""
>     inFile = open(argv[1], 'rb')
> except IOError:
>     exit('Input file does not exist.')

> if not argv[2].isdigit():
>     """Argument #2 needs to be a number"""
>     exit('Column number is not numerical.')

> idx = int(argv[2])
> outFile = open('test.sco', 'wb')

> """Assuming your data in the parse file was a set of key, value pairs
>    to be used for replacement in the input file.  Just splitting on
> the
>    basic space and assigning the first element as the key and the rest
> of
>    the string as the value to be used for replacement.
> """
> replaceData = {}
> for line in open('replacementInstructions.txt', 'rb'):
>     key = line.strip().split(' ')[0]
>     value = line.strip().split(' ')[1:]
>     replaceData[key] = value

> """Iterate over your input file, split the line into it's component
> parts
>    and then lookup if the first element 'command' is contained in the
>    replacement data and if so change the data.
>    If you want all input to be saved into your output file, just
> dedent
>    the 'outFile.write' line by one level and then all data will be
> saved.
> """
> for line in inFile:
>     record = line.strip().split(' ')
>     if record[0] in parseRows:
>         record[idx] = parseRows[record[0]]
>         outFile.write('%s\n' % ' '.join(record) )

> inFile.close()
> outFile.close()- Hide quoted text -

> - Show quoted text -