Please help! I can't get an exception for the total bill amount to work

Question

Hi,
I'm trying raise an exception when the total bill amount entered by the user is <=0, but I can't get it to work.  However, the below code does work in raising an exception for the number of guests.  Please can someone tell me where I'm going wrong and how to get it right?
Cheers
Zak
import math
def split_cheque(total, guests):
    if total <=0:
        raise ValueError("The bill must be more than 0!")
    elif guests <=1:
        raise ValueError("More than 1 person is required to split the cheque.") 
    return math.ceil(total / guests)
try:
    total = float(input("What is the total bill amount? "))
    guests = float(input("How many guests are there? "))
    amountdue = splitcheque(total, guests)
except ValueError as err:
    print("Oh no! That's not a valid value... Please try again.")
    print("({})".format(err))
else:   
    print("The cost per guest is £{}. Many thanks!".format(amount_due))

Eric M · Answer

Hi Zak,
I've set your code out as follows and both exceptions get thrown for me. What issues are you having?
```Python
import math
def split_cheque(total, guests):
        if total <=0:
                raise ValueError("The bill must be more than 0!")
        elif guests <=1:
                raise ValueError("More than 1 person is required to split the cheque.")
    return math.ceil(total / guests)
try:
        total = float(input("What is the total bill amount? "))
        guests = float(input("How many guests are there? "))
        amountdue = splitcheque(total, guests)
except ValueError as err:
        print("Oh no! That's not a valid value... Please try again.")
        print("({})".format(err))
else:
        print("The cost per guest is £{}. Many thanks!".format(amount_due))
```
Separately, let me suggest that you either change the parameter names in split_cheque or the variable names in your try block so that the total and guests parameters in split_cheque aren't shadowing names from the outer scope? You could also wrap your try/except block in a function then call that function in the outer scope to avoid this.
Cheers,
Eric

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Zak Nason

Zak Nason

Please help! I can't get an exception for the total bill amount to work

1 Answer

Eric M

Eric M

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