Hey everyone! I'm really new to Python and could use some assistance with my script. I'm working on a Python program that's intended to read an 'owner name' column from an Excel file and figure out whether the names are human or company names. For the human names, I want to split them into first and last name fields. However, I'm running into issues where it's creating a backup file but not processing correctly. I have some hard-coded blacklists in the code to help filter the names, but it seems like something's off. Here's the main part of my script:
```python
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import pandas as pd
import re
import shutil
from pathlib import Path
# blacklist definitions, helper functions, and main process code...
```
Can anyone help me pinpoint what I might be missing or doing wrong? Thanks a lot!
4 Answers
Instead of relying solely on backups, consider checking whether your name filtering logic is properly identifying names. You should also ensure that the columns in your Excel file match what your code is searching for, in terms of naming. It might be worth double-checking that your blacklists are comprehensive enough to catch the unwanted entries.
Make sure your input Excel file really contains the right data! Sometimes, issues come from unexpected formats in your data. You can try opening the file directly and visually verifying whether the names are formatted the way you expect them to be.
A good way to troubleshoot this is to add some print statements throughout your code, especially in the `process_df` function. This will help you see what values your variables have as the code runs. This extra step may seem tedious, but it can really clarify what’s happening at each stage. Plus, if you’re just starting out, it can help you learn how the data is flowing through your program!
If you still run into issues, consider testing sections of your code independently. You could isolate the tokenization and filtering process and try feeding it some sample data directly to see if it performs as expected.
Or you could use a debugger tool! It's built into most IDEs and can step through your code line by line.