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JavaScript JavaScript Loops, Arrays and Objects Simplify Repetitive Tasks with Loops A Closer Look At Loop Conditions

Posted by Tyler Mauldin
Tyler Mauldin
1,468 Points

Issues with my while loop

I feel like I have a slight grasp on it but something is eluding me to why this script is taking so long to run?

app.js 
var secret = prompt ("What is the secret password?");
var sesame 

while ( sesame !== secret ) {
  prompt = (secret);
}

document.write("You know the secret password. Welcome.");
index.html 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <title>JavaScript Loops</title>
</head>
<body>
<script src="app.js"></script>
</body>
</html>
Gav Cooper
Gav Cooper
4,261 Points

Your first line is fine. In line 2, you've declared a variable for what the correct password is, but you haven't actually said what string you want the password to be! if you want the password to be 'sesame' you could have something like 

var sesame = "sesame";

In your while loop, your test condition doesn't yet make sense because JS doesn't know what the value of the sesame variable is, so it can't compare it to anything. On the next line down, you don't need an equals sign after your prompt, as prompt isn't a variable. Here, you could try 

secret = prompt("That is the incorrect password. Try again");

Hope that helps.

2 Answers

Braden Boaglio
Braden Boaglio
9,375 Points
Braden Boaglio
Braden Boaglio
9,375 Points

Hello. The code below worked for me.

var secret = prompt("What is the secret password?");

while (secret !== 'sesame') {
  secret = prompt();
}

document.write("You know the secret password. Welcome.");
Jason Anders
MOD
Jason Anders
Treehouse Moderator 145,860 Points
Jason Anders
Jason Anders
Treehouse Moderator 145,860 Points

While Gavin is correct, and his code is valid, the challenges are very picky and specific. If you do more than what they ask, it is highly likely it will not pass you.

The challenge did not ask you to create a new variable, and you are very close with the rest of your code. But you cannot assign something to "prompt" because that is not a variable. Inside the loop, all you have to do is reassign a new value to the "secret" variable:

var secret = prompt("What is the secret password?");
while (secret !== "sesame") {
  secret = prompt("Wrong, try again!");
}
document.write("You know the secret password. Welcome.");

Hope that helps. Keep Coding! :)

Gav Cooper
Gav Cooper
4,261 Points

Ah! I hadn't realised that this was a code challenge he was asking about, haha. It turns out I was just before that particular challenge in the Loops, Arrays and Objects course :)