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Python Python Basics (2015) Number Game App Squared

Kade Carlson
Kade Carlson
5,928 Points
Posted by Kade Carlson
Kade Carlson
5,928 Points

Not sure what I'm supposed to do here

Can someone please explain to me what I am supposed to do here?

squared.py 
def squared(num):
    if num == int:
        return(num * num)
    elif num != int:
        return(num * len(num))

1 Answer

Kevin Li
Kevin Li
864 Points

For this challenge they want you to use the try and except blocks. So, what I would do is:

  1. Try to convert whatever was given into an integer

**Use a try block, and if that fails, then you know that a string of characters, not numbers, was given.

  1. Either square the number, or if an exception occurred, multiply the string by len(the string).

Keep in mind that you won't be able to check if it is an integer as you did in your example, since you used "if num == int:", and in that case python will think that 'int' is a variable (that you didn't set up yet) and therefore there will be an exception.

# EXAMPLES
# squared(5) would return 25
# squared("2") would return 4
# squared("tim") would return "timtimtim"
def squared(arg):
    try:
        arg = int(arg)
        return arg ** 2
    except ValueError:
        return arg * len(arg)