My function is somehow printing one value being held by a variable but returning something different!

Question

So, as you will see in my code, I am trying to test a piece of code (not very well written, sadly) that will force the user to input integers.

def create_game():
    #Get user input difficulty levels.
    print('create game')

    amount = input('How many items do you want to remember? ')
    try:
        int(amount)        
        print(amount)
        print('try')
    except ValueError:
        print(amount)
        print('except')
        print('Value must be a number greater than 0...')
        create_game()

    time_guess = input('Set your time limit (in minutes): ')
    try:
        int(time_guess)
        print(time_guess)
        print('try')
    except ValueError:
        print(time_guess)
        print('except')
        print('Value must be a number greater than 0...')
        create_game()

    print('amount: {} / time: {}'.format(amount, time_guess))
    return int(amount), int(time_guess)

amount, time_guess = create_game()
print('amount: {} / time: {}'.format(amount, time_guess))

(most of the print statements are for debugging purposes) So, if I do some basic testing, say, input the letter 'a' for the amount, it does what it should and spits me back to the top. So, I put in 4 for the amount and then it moves me to the next input. I type 't' for the time_guess and then in spits me back to the top (as it should). I then type 4 for the amount and 3 for the time_guess. Both pass the test and it prints out "amount: 4 / time: 3" and then returns amount and time_guess.

Now, when it prints after the function call to create_game() (the last line in the code) it prints "amount:4 / time: t" along with this error message (generated in IDLE):

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:/Python34/Scripts/Linker Memory game/create game test.py", line 6, in create_game
    int(amount)
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: 'y'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:/Python34/Scripts/Linker Memory game/create game test.py", line 29, in <module>
    amount, time_guess = create_game()
  File "C:/Python34/Scripts/Linker Memory game/create game test.py", line 13, in create_game
    create_game()
  File "C:/Python34/Scripts/Linker Memory game/create game test.py", line 27, in create_game
    return int(amount), int(time_guess)
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: 't'

so it appears to be printing the most current amount and time_guess (4 and 3) when in the function but returning the previously entered amount and time_guess (4 and 't'). I am stymied.

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1 · 2015-07-16T23:13:32Z

July 16, 2015 11:13pm

Hi,

It should ok if you call return create_game() instead of create_game() in your two except blocks. I think it's returning None to your amount and time_guess. Let me know if this works.

def create_game():
    #Get user input difficulty levels.
    print('create game')

    amount = input('How many items do you want to remember? ')
    try:
        int(amount)        
        print(amount)
        print('try')
    except ValueError:
        print(amount)
        print('except')
        print('Value must be a number greater than 0...')
        return create_game()

    time_guess = input('Set your time limit (in minutes): ')
    try:
        int(time_guess)
        print(time_guess)
        print('try')
    except ValueError:
        print(time_guess)
        print('except')
        print('Value must be a number greater than 0...')
        return create_game()

    print('amount: {} / time: {}'.format(amount, time_guess))
    return int(amount), int(time_guess)

amount, time_guess = create_game()
print('amount: {} / time: {}'.format(amount, time_guess))

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Adam Raitano

Adam Raitano

My function is somehow printing one value being held by a variable but returning something different!

1 Answer

Hanley Chan

Hanley Chan