TypeError: 'str' object is not callable (Python)

Question

Code:

import urllib2 as u
import os as o
inn = 'dword.txt'
w = open(inn)
z = w.readline()
b = w.readline()
c = w.readline()
x = w.readline()
m = w.readline()
def Dict(Let, Mod):
    global str
    inn = 'dword.txt'
    den = 'definitions.txt'

    print 'reading definitions...'

    dell =open(den, 'w')

    print 'getting source code...'
    f = u.urlopen('http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/' + Let)
    a = f.read(800)

    print 'writing source code to file...'
    f = open("dic1.txt", "w")
    f.write(a)
    f.close()

    j = open('defs.txt', 'w')

    print 'finding definition is source code'
    for line in open("dic1.txt"):
        if '<meta name="description" content=' in line:
           j.write(line)

    j.close()

    te = open('defs.txt', 'r').read().split()
    sto = open('remove.txt', 'r').read().split()

    print 'skimming down the definition...'
    mar = []
    for t in te:
        if t.lower() in sto:
            mar.append('')
        else: 
            mar.append(t)
    print mar
    str = str(mar)
    str = ''.join([ c for c in str if c not in (",", "'", '[', ']', '')])

    defin = open(den, Mod)
    defin.write(str)
    defin.write('                 ')
    defin.close()

    print 'cleaning up...'
    o.system('del dic1.txt')
    o.system('del defs.txt')
Dict(z, 'w')
Dict(b, 'a')
Dict(c, 'a')
Dict(x, 'a')
Dict(m, 'a')
print 'all of the definitions are in definitions.txt'

The first Dict(z, 'w') works and then the second time around it comes up with an error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:Usersest.py", line 64, in <module>
    Dict(b, 'a')
  File "C:Usersest.py", line 52, in Dict
    str = str(mar)
TypeError: 'str' object is not callable

Does anyone know why this is?

@Greg Hewgill:

I've already tried that and I get the error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "C:Usersest.py", line 63, in <module>
    Dict(z, 'w')
  File "C:Usersest.py", line 53, in Dict
   strr = ''.join([ c for c in str if c not in (",", "'", '[', ']', '')])
TypeError: 'type' object is not iterable

Answer 1

This is the problem:

global str

str = str(mar)

You are redefining what str() means. str is the built-in Python name of the string type, and you don't want to change it.

Use a different name for the local variable, and remove the global statement.