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Python Python Basics (Retired) Ins & Outs String Concatenation

Posted by K. Brice Perez
K. Brice Perez
15,095 Points

What is a indentationError: expected an indented block

IndentationError: expected an indented block is what the console returns when my code is exactly what Kenneth has on this video lesson

name = input("What's your name? ")

if name == "Kris":

print(name + " is a lumberjack and he is ok!")

else: print(name + " sleeps all night and " + name + "works all day!")

Jason Anello
Jason Anello
Courses Plus Student 94,610 Points

Hi Kristopher,

Can you post the code that you have?

https://teamtreehouse.com/forum/posting-code-to-the-forum

Joe Cochran
Joe Cochran
4,430 Points

Hi Kristopher,

Take a look at the Markdown Cheatsheet to see how to format code in the forum. the ` symbol (above the tab key) three times will show a block of code in the forum as I have done. Another three of those will show the end of the block. You get the nice syntax highlighting and everything!

2 Answers

Joe Cochran
Joe Cochran
4,430 Points

Hi Kristopher,

This error typically means there is an error in indentation.

Most likely, you have something like this:

if condition:
do this
else:
do this

The problem is that Python requires formatting of blocks like this with indentation. So to correct that error in the above code, I would simply do:

if condition:
    do this
else:
    do this

Python is very picky about white space and indentation, more so than many languages. The reason is, rather than using curly braces and semi colons (like javascript or php) python looks for a return character (press enter/return on your keyboard) instead of the semicolon, and a colon with a tab after it for a opening curly brace. When the next piece of code is unindented, it expects that this is the same as a closing curly brace in Javascript or PHP.

Let me know if you'd like me to elaborate more!