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Python

Posted by Matthew Price
Matthew Price
511 Points

confused why two similar things don't produce the same result.

      response = str(input("double down? Y or N"))
      if response == str.lower(y):
          game()
      else:
          quit()

So, I'm making the python guess game right now, and I found out how to get the users response to continue the game as intended. but I want to know WHY things do or dont work.

the code above did NOT work. when the user input a [y] , I would get a 'NameError: y is not defined'. however, if I change the 

 if response == str.lower(y):

TO THIS....

if response == str.lower('y'):

it works as intended

why does the first one not work, since I'm making it a string with 'str', and the second one works, although the 'y' should already be a string whether or not I put quotes around it?

I probably went overboard trying to clarify what my question actually was, but thanks for your time.

1 Answer

Henrik Christensen
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Henrik Christensen
Python Web Development Techdegree Student 38,322 Points

if response == str.lower(y): - Here y is a variable because it's not wrapped in quotes.

if response == str.lower('y'): - Here y is a string because it's wrapped in quotes

Matthew Price
Matthew Price
511 Points

doesn't the str() function make it a string? I guess that's one of the basics I didn't fully understand.

Henrik Christensen
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Henrik Christensen
Python Web Development Techdegree Student 38,322 Points 
str(2)  # == "2"

By doing str(y) you would just turn what ever stored in the variable y into a string, but it would not be == "y"

I hope this make sense? :-)

Matthew Price
Matthew Price
511 Points

Ah yes. that makes perfect sense. no quotes makes python search for a variable named (whatever). thanks for the help!