CODEWITHSUNDEEP
python-2.7indentation
SJWard
SJWard

Reputation: 3759

Indent error in python in python class

I've been writing the following class definition in Sublime Text for python

class BPHmanager(object):
  """Class for BPHmanager"""

  def makeNewProject(self, projname):
    if os.path.exists(projname):
      print "Directory of that name already exists in current directory."
      sys.exit(2) # exit the program.
    else:
      os.mkdir(projname)
      os.chdir(projname)
      os.mkdir(".bph")
      os.mkdir(".bph/deletes")
      defaults = raw_input("Add default datatypes to project? Yy/Nn > ")
      if defaults == 'Y' or defaults == 'y':
        self.Datatypes = {"reads": [], "assemblies": [], "alignments":[], "annotations":[]}
        self.MetadataDefs["reads"] = []
        self.MetadataDefs["assemblies"] = []
        self.MetadataDefs["alignments"] = []
        self.MetadataDefs["annotations"] = []

  def saveSettings(self):
    settingsfile = open(".bph/bph.settingsfile", 'w')
    settingsdict = {self.Organisms, self.Datatypes, self.MetadataDefs}
    settingsfile.write(json.dumps(settingsdict, separators=(',',':')))
    settingsfile.close()
    print "Saved changes to .bph/bph.settingsfile"

  def __init__(self, argv):
    # and so on

For some reason, if I import this file to test it or copy and paste into the interpreter, I always get many indentation errors, starting with:

def saveSettings(self):
  File "<stdin>", line 1
    def saveSettings(self):
    ^
IndentationError: unexpected indent

But The line for the saveSettings function begins at the same indentation level as the previous function, so I can't figure out why I'm getting this error.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 8843

Answers (1)

Schiem
Schiem

Reputation: 589

It's most likely that you have an inconsistent mix between tabs and spaces in the file. Nowadays tabs are often thought of as 4 spaces, but there is actually a tab character that gets inserted when you hit the tab key.

However, because using 4 spaces for indentation instead of tabs has started to become something of a standard, many text editors will default to using 4 spaces as the method of auto-indentation, which is what results in a mixture of tab characters (ones that you hit the tab key for), and 4 spaces (ones that the editor put in for you). Python really doesn't like that, and will error. Although spaces are becoming a standard, you need to pick one and be consistent.

In sublime (I'm assuming Sublime 2), you can convert your leading tabs/spaces, and also set it to automatically expand your tabs to 4 spaces when you hit the tab key. This is outlined in the Sublime docs here:

https://www.sublimetext.com/docs/2/indentation.html

Upvotes: 2

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