Hi Dave,
Sorry for my unclear question. I didn't use the d = load_friends('friends.csv') now because I'm going use it for other function later on, I should have remove it first to avoid confusion. This is the code for load_friends , add_info ,display_friends, save_friends function: def load_friends(filename): f = open(filename, 'rU') for row in f: return list (row.strip() for row in f) def add_info(new_info, new_list): # Persons name is the first item of the list name = new_info[0] # Check if we already have an item with that name for item in new_list: if item[0] == name: print "%s is already in the list" % name return False # Insert the item into the list new_list.append(new_info) return True def display_friends(name, friends_list): Fname = name[0] for item in friends_list: if item[0] == Fname: print item break else: print False def save_friends(friend_info, new_list): with open(friend_info, 'w') as f: for line in new_list: f.write(line + '\n') I will elaborate my question further , when the user type the function call interact() this will appear : interact() Friends File: friends.csv so after which the user would type in the command call maybe we call it " F John Cleese", the program need to know if the user input contain a "f" "a" or "e" at the first char and if 'f' it mean it would takes a name as an argument, prints out the information about that friend or prints an error message if the given name is notthe name of a friend in the database(friends.csv). if "a" it would takes four arguments (comma separated) with information about a person and adds that person as a friend. An error message is printed if that person is already a friend. if "e" it would ends the interaction and, if the friends information has been updated, the information is saved to the friends.csv. This is the example output Command: f John Cleese John Cleese: Ministry of Silly Walks, 5555421, 27 October Command: f Michael Palin Unknown friend Michael Palin Command: f Invalid Command: f Command: a Michael Palin Invalid Command: a Michael Palin Command: a John Cleese, Cheese Shop, 5552233, 5 May John Cleese is already a friend Command: a Michael Palin, Cheese Shop, 5552233, 5 May Command: f Michael Palin Michael Palin: Cheese Shop, 5552233, 5 May Command: e Saving changes... Exiting... So currently I think i had my other functions ready but I do not know how do i apply it into interact() my rough idea is : def interact(*arg): open('friends.csv', 'rU') d = load_friends('friends.csv') print "Friends File: friends.csv" s = raw_input() command = s.split(" ", 1) if "f" in command: # invoke display_friends function print result elif "a" in command: # invoke add_info function print result elif "e" in command: # invoke save_friends function print result My idea is to split the user command out to ['f', 'John Cleese'] and use the 'F' to invoke my "f" in the if statement and then i would use the display_friends function to process 'John Cleese' but i'm not sure if i'm able to do it this way -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list