I'm getting 'file not found' running my script. What did I do wrong? Print

The error "file not found" usually means your script is trying to access a file that:

• Doesn't exist at the specified location

• Has a wrong file path or filename

• Is located in a different directory than the script expects

 

✅ Common Things to Check:

1. Check the File Path

• Is the path relative or absolute?

  python

   

  # Relative path (from where you run the script) open("data/input.txt") # Absolute path open("/Users/you/Documents/project/data/input.txt")

• If you're using a relative path, make sure you’re running the script from the correct working directory.

2. Check the File Name

• Is the file name spelled exactly right? (File extensions too: .txt, .csv, etc.)

• File systems like Linux/macOS are case-sensitive:

  • "input.txt" ≠ "Input.txt"

3. Check File Location

• Is the file in the same folder as your script (for relative paths)?

• If not, either:

  • Move the file to where the script expects it.

  • Or change the path in your script.

4. Escape Backslashes on Windows

• If you’re using Windows:

  python

   

  # WRONG open("C:\newfolder\data.txt") # \n and \d are escape characters # RIGHT open("C:\\newfolder\\data.txt") # or open(r"C:\newfolder\data.txt")

5. Check Script’s Working Directory

• You can print it to debug:

  python

   

  import os print(os.getcwd())

• That’s the folder your relative paths are based on.