Is there any way to run three python files sequentially as the output of each file depends on the other

Question

I have three python files file1.py, file2.py, file3.py. Each file will generate a .csv file and will give it to the other file sequentially. To elaborate file1.py will generate file1.csv and this .csv file will be the input of file2.py and so on.

 import file1
 import file2
 import file3

 file1
 file2
 file3

 IOError: File file2.csv does not exist

The problem is when I import file2.py,there is no file1.csv as it is yet to be executed. Please let me how to call each one sequentially without even reading the next python file.

Answer 1

Each of your scripts should be set up as a function or class that generates the file. The general structure could be something like this:

# file1.py
def generate_csv(filename):
    # put your file generation code here
    # you could easily use Python's csv module, for example
    return csv_filename

Then in your main script you can call each of your scripts, like this:

# main.py
import file1, file2, file3

def main(filename):
    fname_one = file1.generate_csv(filename)
    fname_two = file2.generate_csv(fname_one)
    fname_three = file3_generate_csv(fname_two)

This keeps your original scripts from being run when imported. Your main script controls the order of execution and can do whatever needs to be done to the 3rd file name that is returned.