Opening a text file and writing some of its contents to an xlsx file in the current working directory with a .exe

Question

I have a script, called BLRP2Excel.py, that takes a text file called BLRP.txt in the same directory as the script, and writes some of it's content to a .xlsx file called 'Computer Data.xlsx.' The idea is to use PyInstaller (Python 3.5) to turn my script into a .exe that will run on any Windows PC, where BLRP.txt is in the same directory as the .exe, and to output 'Computer Data.xlsx' to, let's say, the same directory. The script does exactly what it's supposed to when run in PyCharm.

Here are the relevant pieces of my code:

import os
import xlsxwriter

cwd = os.getcwd()

workbook = xlsxwriter.Workbook(cwd + "\\" + 'Computer Data.xlsx')

"rest of my code"

with open(cwd + "\\" + 'BLRP.txt') as my_file:

"rest of my code"

I installed PyInstaller both in my virtual environment and directly from a command prompt in the PATH folder where my project is, opened a command prompt in the same directory as BLRP2Excel.py, and ran:

pyinstaller BLRP2Excel.py

This successfully created a pycache, build, and dist folder in the same directory as my script. I tossed my BLRP.txt into the dist folder and ran the BLRP2Excel.exe, and...

nothing happened except a flash of the command prompt.

What went wrong?

Answer 1

I tossed my BLRP.txt into the dist folder and ran the BLRP2Excel.exe, and... nothing happened except a flash of the command prompt.

First, your program is producing some kind CLI output, meaning its generating a command window which closes automatically if not already open (the command prompt flash).

Since your program isn't working correctly, this is probably the specific error being encountered. Open a command window in the same directory as your .exe file (Shift -> Right-Click -> "Open command window here...") and use that to run the .exe e.g.

C:\some\dir\dist\BLRP2Excel> BLRP2Excel.exe

Any message(s) produced should help determine the cause of the issue.