I had another attempt at inputting the code perhaps with the right indentation, I still get an error return, but not one that indicates that the code has not been read, as you suggested. re:- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Python 2.7.6 (default, Nov 10 2013, 19:24:18) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)] on win 32 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> from bs4 import BeautifulSoup >>> with open("ecologicalpyramid.html","r") as ecological_pyramid: ... soup = BeautifulSoup(ecological_pyramid,"lxml") ... producer_entries = soup.find("ul") File "<stdin>", line 3 producer_entries = soup.find("ul") ^ SyntaxError: invalid syntax >>> from bs4 import BeautifulSoup File "<stdin>", line 1 from bs4 import BeautifulSoup ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- If, as you suggest I left a free line after the "with open( etc" line, console returns an error, if I leave a free line after the "soup = etc" line which comes after, again I get an error return, my only point is that with the above input, console return does not seem to infer that soup has not been defined. You recommend that I put all the code into a file then run it - how do I do that ? I am new to Python, as you might have gathered. Thank you for your help. Yours Simon -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list