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Randy Stegner
550 PointsCompleted loopy challenge but items print multiple times
I've completed the loopy challenge and added the break, however when I run the code in workspaces (or windows ps, or command prompt or w/e) my item prints out multiple times or on multiple lines (if I change print(item) to print (items). For example, if I make pizza my item by adding loopy(pizza) at the end of the code and run it, I get (on new lines for each): p i z z a
And if I change it to items and use pizza I get (on new lines for each):
pizza pizza pizza pizza pizza
Can anyone tell me why this might be? Seems like it should print only one line and either be a p or pizza.
Thanks in advance.
def loopy(items):
for item in items:
if item == "STOP":
break
print(item)
2 Answers
andren
28,558 PointsThe loopy function is designed to work with a list, not a string. If you send it a list like this:
loopy(["pizza"]) # ["pizza"] is a list with one string
Then you would only get one line printed out.
The reason why you get the individual letters printed out when you pass it a string is that Python treats strings as a list of characters. So when you ask Python to loop through a string it will pull out each individual character of the string as if it were an item in a list.
The reason you get repeated prints when you change print(item) to print(items) is that items is the variable that holds the list being looped through, whereas item is the variable holding the current item that has been pulled out of the list. The loop runs once for each item in the list, so if you tell Python to print out the list itself within the loop then it will print that list once for every item in the list.
Dave StSomeWhere
19,870 PointsYour print(item) statement is within the for loop (based on the indentation) and since nothing stops the loop it will execute the print() each time through. The break will only execute and stop the loop when item is equal to "STOP" which is never the case when you pass "pizza".
Randy Stegner
550 PointsThanks Dave. I was actually understanding that part of this code. I appreciate you taking the time to respond.
Randy Stegner
550 PointsRandy Stegner
550 PointsExcellent explanation. Thanks for taking the time to help me on that. I like to understand what is happening in the code rather than just complete an assignment and check if off the list. This helped a ton.