NameError: name is not defined

Question

Here is my code for the shopping list. It is almost identical to the video:

shopping_list = list()

print("What would you like to add to the list") print("Enter DONE what finished")

while True: new_item = input("> ")

if new_item == 'DONE':
    break

shopping_list.append(new_item)
print ("Your list contains {}".format(len(shopping_list)))
continue

for items in shopping_list: print(items)

When I run it, whatever I add as my first items gives me the following error:

What would you like to add to the list Enter DONE what finished

eggs Traceback (most recent call last): File "shoppinglist.py", line 7, in <module> new_items = input("> ") File "<string>", line 1, in <module> NameError: name 'eggs' is not defined

Any help would be great

Answer 1 · 2014-08-04T10:48:58Z

August 4, 2014 10:48am

Hi there again, what's the version of your python? (type 'python -V' to find out ) here's a modified code, optimized for Python 2.6.6.

shopping_list = list()

print("What should we pickup at the store? ")
print("Enter DONE to stop adding items. ")

while True:
      # use raw_input instead of input
      new_item = raw_input("> ")

      if new_item == 'DONE':
            break

      shopping_list.append(new_item)
      # use {0} instead of {} when formatting
      print("Added! List has {0} items.".format(len(shopping_list)))
      continue

print("Here's your list:")

for item in shopping_list:
      print(item)

Reference: https://docs.python.org/2/library/functions.html#raw_input https://docs.python.org/2/library/string.html#formatstrings

HTH

Answer 2 · 2014-08-04T09:41:46Z

August 4, 2014 9:41am

Dear Aaron, i had the same problem, check out the spacing and indentation within the while loop and the if statement. Each block of code is recognized by the same indentation. It's very important.

Here's my shopping_list.py. Check it out!

shopping_list = list()

print("What should we pivkup at the store? ")
print("Enter DONE to stop adding items. ")

# while loop block
while True:

      # read input from console, infinitely
      new_item = input("> ")

      # until you type "DONE", then loop will be stopped 
      if new_item == 'DONE':
            break

      # if you type anything else then "DONE", the input will be added to your shopping list
      shopping_list.append(new_item)
      print("Added! List has {} items.".format(len(shopping_list)))

      # continue will result a jump, back to the beginning of while loop (new input will be asked on the console)
      continue
# end of while loop block

# new block of code, only run if the loop is over (for eg: the input was "DONE")
print("Here's your list:")

# echo the list items
for item in shopping_list:
      print(item)
#end on block

HTH

Answer 3 · 2014-08-04T11:04:35Z

August 4, 2014 11:04am

FYI for anyone with this problem. I had both python 2 and 3 installed so i needed to call pythong 3 instead of 2 to have the code working as originally written

Answer 4 · 2014-08-04T16:19:14Z

August 4, 2014 4:19pm

Yeah, using Python 2, input() does an eval on the values passed in, which means it's effectively running whatever is passed in as Python code (scary), so it'll look for variables, etc. Python 3 fixed this horrible loop hole.

This is just one of the reasons we using Python 3 instead of Python 2.

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Aaron Brooks

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NameError: name is not defined

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