ptval = {} ptval['H_'] = '001' ptval['He'] = '002' ptval['Li'] = '003' ptval['Be'] = '004' ptval['B_'] = '005' ptval['C_'] = '006' ptval['N_'] = '007' ptval['O_'] = '008' ptval['F_'] = '009' ptval['Ne'] = '010' ptval['Na'] = '010' ptval['Mg'] = '011' ptval['Al'] = '012' ptval['Si'] = '013' ptval['P_'] = '014' ptval['S_'] = '015' ptval['Cl'] = '016' ptval['Ar'] = '017' ptval['K_'] = '018' ptval['Ca'] = '019' fileHandle = open ('input.txt', 'r') for x in fileHandle: if x.strip() in ptval: print ptval[x.strip()]