I have a program due and I cannot figure it out! I have read about 30 tutorials to no avail! I need to have data read into python from an input file. The data is suppossed to be info from a pretend university that only has 10 students. Once I figure out how to input the data I should be able to do the rest but right now I am stumped!

You need to let us know what kind of a data file this is. If it is just a text file, you can read the whole thing into a string and go from there ...
[php]# read the entire text from a file into a string
fileHandle = open ( 'test.txt', 'r' )
str1 = fileHandle.read()
fileHandle.close()

# now process the string ...
print str1
[/php]

It is text and numbers. It is a listing of like 10 people, their major, gpa, and student id number.

I assume from your limited info that each student's data is on a separate line. In this case you can read the file into a list of data lines ...
[PHP]# read the data from a file into a list of data lines
fileHandle = open ( 'test.txt', 'r' )
dataList = fileHandle.readlines()
fileHandle.close()

# now process each data line from the list ...
print dataList[0]
print dataList[1]
# etc
[/PHP]
You can treat each line as a string and separate it with the split() function at the delimiter (space, tab, comma, whatever?) into name, study, gpa and ID.

So I talked with my teacher and he told me I did my last project wrong (the program i asked about previously is a continuation of my last project). I was working on it again tonight following the steps my teacher told me and I cannot figure out why it will not work. Here is the code I was told to use:

Idnum = ['5555', '2323', '1001', '9999', '3428', '5920', '3012', '8954', '7834', '3490']

task = input("Press 1 to select a student: ")
if task == 1 :
student = input("Enter student id number: ")
count = 0
while (count < len(Idnum)) :
if student == Idnum[count] :
index = count
count = count+1
print Indnum == index


Where is the mistake? When I run it the program does nothing, it doens't close or anything, just sits there.

The numbers in your Idnum list are strings. Input() gives you an integer number. Now you are trying to compare a string with an integer, that will always be false! Use raw_input() to get a string ...
[PHP]Idnum = ['5555', '2323', '1001', '9999', '3428', '5920', '3012', '8954', '7834', '3490']

task = input("Enter 1 to select a student: ")
if task == 1 :
student = raw_input("Enter student id number: ")
count = 0
while (count < len(Idnum)) :
if student == Idnum[count] :
index = count
print "Found %s at index = %d" % (student, index)

count = count+1

[/PHP]

Thank you so much for your help! It really helped me figure out almost the rest of the program. But I am stuck again. On this part I have an array with GPA's for the students and I need to print a list of students who are on the Dean's List. This is what I thought would do it:

GPA = ['3.2', '4.0', '3.8', '1.2', '3.5', '4.0', '3.4', '1.4', '3.6', '2.7']

Name = ['John Smith', 'Nancy Doe', 'Eric Adams', 'Homer Simpson', 'Marilyn Monroe', 'Rory Gilmore', 'Gavin Degraw', 'Ashley Simpson', 'Brad Paisley', 'Dr. Phil']

if task == 3 :
count = 0
while (count < len(GPA)) :
index = count
if 3.4 < GPA[index] :
print Name[index]
print GPA[index]
count = count+1

It keeps printing out the entire list though. Thanks for any help you can give!

Again, your GPA list consists of strings and you are comparing this with a floating point number. Convert the string to a float with float() and then compare ...
[php]GPA = ['3.2', '4.0', '3.8', '1.2', '3.5', '4.0', '3.4', '1.4', '3.6', '2.7']

Name = ['John Smith', 'Nancy Doe', 'Eric Adams', 'Homer Simpson', 'Marilyn Monroe', 'Rory Gilmore', 'Gavin Degraw', 'Ashley Simpson', 'Brad Paisley', 'Dr. Phil']

task = 3 # for testing
if task == 3 :
count = 0
while (count < len(GPA)) :
index = count
# not quite sure if you want to include 3.4
if float(GPA[index]) >= 3.4:
print Name[index]
print GPA[index]

count = count+1
[/php]
Do all of us a favor and put your code into a code or php field!
See: http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforum...cement8-3.html

your problem again was that you were comparing a string to a float. heres how to convert the string to a float so that you can compare them.

[PHP]
GPA = ['3.2', '4.0', '3.8', '1.2', '3.5', '4.0', '3.4', '1.4', '3.6', '2.7']

Name = ['John Smith', 'Nancy Doe', 'Eric Adams', 'Homer Simpson', 'Marilyn Monroe', 'Rory Gilmore', 'Gavin Degraw', 'Ashley Simpson', 'Brad Paisley', 'Dr. Phil']

count = 0
while (count < len(GPA)):
index = count
if float(GPA[index]) > 3.4:
print Name[index]
print GPA[index]
count = count+1
[/PHP]

output:
Nancy Doe
4.0
Eric Adams
3.8
Marilyn Monroe
3.5
Rory Gilmore
4.0
Brad Paisley
3.6

Greetings kyle.tk ---

Glad to see you take part!!!!!!!!!!!