A while loop tests an initial condition. If that condition is true, the loop starts executing. Every time the loop finishes, the condition is reevaluated. As long as the condition remains true, the loop keeps executing. As soon as the condition becomes false, the loop stops executing.
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# Set an initial condition.
game_active = True
# Set up the while loop.
while game_active:
# Run the game.
# At some point, the game ends and game_active will be set to False.
# When that happens, the loop will stop executing.
# Do anything else you want done after the loop runs.
while statement includes a condition to test.
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# The player's power starts out at 5.
power = 5
# The player is allowed to keep playing as long as their power is over 0.
while power > 0:
print("You are still playing, because your power is %d." % power)
# Your game code would go here, which includes challenges that make it
# possible to lose power.
# We can represent that by just taking away from the power.
power = power - 1
print("\nOh no, your power dropped to 0! Game Over.")
Almost all interesting programs accept input from the user at some point. You can start accepting user input in your programs by using the input() function. The input function displays a messaget to the user describing the kind of input you are looking for, and then it waits for the user to enter a value. When the user presses Enter, the value is passed to your variable.
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# Get some input from the user.
variable = input('Please enter a value: ')
# Do something with the value that was entered.
You need a variable that will hold whatever value the user enters, and you need a message that will be displayed to the user.
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# Start with a list containing several names.
names = ['guido', 'tim', 'jesse']
# Ask the user for a name.
new_name = input("Please tell me someone I should know: ")
# Add the new name to our list.
names.append(new_name)
# Show that the name has been added to the list.
print(names)
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# The same program, in Python 2.7
# Start with a list containing several names.
names = ['guido', 'tim', 'jesse']
# Ask the user for a name.
new_name = raw_input("Please tell me someone I should know: ")
# Add the new name to our list.
names.append(new_name)
# Show that the name has been added to the list.
print(names)
new_game.
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# Start with an empty list. You can 'seed' the list with
# some predefined values if you like.
names = []
# Set new_name to something other than 'quit'.
new_name = ''
# Start a loop that will run until the user enters 'quit'.
while new_name != 'quit':
# Ask the user for a name.
new_name = input("Please tell me someone I should know, or enter 'quit': ")
# Add the new name to our list.
names.append(new_name)
# Show that the name has been added to the list.
print(names)
That worked, except we ended up with the name 'quit' in our list. We can use a simple if test to eliminate this bug:
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###highlight=[15,16]
# Start with an empty list. You can 'seed' the list with
# some predefined values if you like.
names = []
# Set new_name to something other than 'quit'.
new_name = ''
# Start a loop that will run until the user enters 'quit'.
while new_name != 'quit':
# Ask the user for a name.
new_name = input("Please tell me someone I should know, or enter 'quit': ")
# Add the new name to our list.
if new_name != 'quit':
names.append(new_name)
# Show that the name has been added to the list.
print(names)
This is pretty cool! We now have a way to accept input from users while our programs run, and we have a way to let our programs run until our users are finished working.
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# Give the user some context.
print("\nWelcome to the nature center. What would you like to do?")
# Set an initial value for choice other than the value for 'quit'.
choice = ''
# Start a loop that runs until the user enters the value for 'quit'.
while choice != 'q':
# Give all the choices in a series of print statements.
print("\n[1] Enter 1 to take a bicycle ride.")
print("[2] Enter 2 to go for a run.")
print("[3] Enter 3 to climb a mountain.")
print("[q] Enter q to quit.")
# Ask for the user's choice.
choice = input("\nWhat would you like to do? ")
# Respond to the user's choice.
if choice == '1':
print("\nHere's a bicycle. Have fun!\n")
elif choice == '2':
print("\nHere are some running shoes. Run fast!\n")
elif choice == '3':
print("\nHere's a map. Can you leave a trip plan for us?\n")
elif choice == 'q':
print("\nThanks for playing. See you later.\n")
else:
print("\nI don't understand that choice, please try again.\n")
# Print a message that we are all finished.
print("Thanks again, bye now.")
Our programs are getting rich enough now, that we could do many different things with them. Let's clean this up in one really useful way. There are three main choices here, so let's define a function for each of those items. This way, our menu code remains really simple even as we add more complicated code to the actions of riding a bicycle, going for a run, or climbing a mountain.
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###highlight=[2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,30,31,32,33,34,35]
# Define the actions for each choice we want to offer.
def ride_bicycle():
print("\nHere's a bicycle. Have fun!\n")
def go_running():
print("\nHere are some running shoes. Run fast!\n")
def climb_mountain():
print("\nHere's a map. Can you leave a trip plan for us?\n")
# Give the user some context.
print("\nWelcome to the nature center. What would you like to do?")
# Set an initial value for choice other than the value for 'quit'.
choice = ''
# Start a loop that runs until the user enters the value for 'quit'.
while choice != 'q':
# Give all the choices in a series of print statements.
print("\n[1] Enter 1 to take a bicycle ride.")
print("[2] Enter 2 to go for a run.")
print("[3] Enter 3 to climb a mountain.")
print("[q] Enter q to quit.")
# Ask for the user's choice.
choice = input("\nWhat would you like to do? ")
# Respond to the user's choice.
if choice == '1':
ride_bicycle()
elif choice == '2':
go_running()
elif choice == '3':
climb_mountain()
elif choice == 'q':
print("\nThanks for playing. See you later.\n")
else:
print("\nI don't understand that choice, please try again.\n")
# Print a message that we are all finished.
print("Thanks again, bye now.")
This is much cleaner code, and it gives us space to separate the details of taking an action from the act of choosing that action.
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# Start with a list of unconfirmed users, and an empty list of confirmed users.
unconfirmed_users = ['ada', 'billy', 'clarence', 'daria']
confirmed_users = []
# Work through the list, and confirm each user.
while len(unconfirmed_users) > 0:
# Get the latest unconfirmed user, and process them.
current_user = unconfirmed_users.pop()
print("Confirming user %s...confirmed!" % current_user.title())
# Move the current user to the list of confirmed users.
confirmed_users.append(current_user)
# Prove that we have finished confirming all users.
print("\nUnconfirmed users:")
for user in unconfirmed_users:
print('- ' + user.title())
print("\nConfirmed users:")
for user in confirmed_users:
print('- ' + user.title())
This works, but let's make one small improvement. The current program always works with the most recently added user. If users are joining faster than we can confirm them, we will leave some users behind. If we want to work on a 'first come, first served' model, or a 'first in first out' model, we can pop the first item in the list each time.
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###highlight=[10]
# Start with a list of unconfirmed users, and an empty list of confirmed users.
unconfirmed_users = ['ada', 'billy', 'clarence', 'daria']
confirmed_users = []
# Work through the list, and confirm each user.
while len(unconfirmed_users) > 0:
# Get the latest unconfirmed user, and process them.
current_user = unconfirmed_users.pop(0)
print("Confirming user %s...confirmed!" % current_user.title())
# Move the current user to the list of confirmed users.
confirmed_users.append(current_user)
# Prove that we have finished confirming all users.
print("\nUnconfirmed users:")
for user in unconfirmed_users:
print('- ' + user.title())
print("\nConfirmed users:")
for user in confirmed_users:
print('- ' + user.title())
This is a little nicer, because we are sure to get to everyone, even when our program is running under a heavy load. We also preserve the order of people as they join our project. Notice that this all came about by adding one character to our program!
Sometimes we want a while loop to run until a defined action is completed, such as emptying out a list. Sometimes we want a loop to run for an unknown period of time, for example when we are allowing users to give as much input as they want. What we rarely want, however, is a true 'runaway' infinite loop.
Take a look at the following example. Can you pick out why this loop will never stop?
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current_number = 1
# Count up to 5, printing the number each time.
while current_number <= 5:
print(current_number)
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1
1
1
1
1
...
I faked that output, because if I ran it the output would fill up the browser. You can try to run it on your computer, as long as you know how to interrupt runaway processes:
The loop runs forever, because there is no way for the test condition to ever fail. The programmer probably meant to add a line that increments current_number by 1 each time through the loop:
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###highlight=[7]
current_number = 1
# Count up to 5, printing the number each time.
while current_number <= 5:
print(current_number)
current_number = current_number + 1
You will certainly make some loops run infintely at some point. When you do, just interrupt the loop and figure out the logical error you made.
Infinite loops will not be a real problem until you have users who run your programs on their machines. You won't want infinite loops then, because your users would have to shut down your program, and they would consider it buggy and unreliable. Learn to spot infinite loops, and make sure they don't pop up in your polished programs later on.
Here is one more example of an accidental infinite loop:
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current_number = 1
# Count up to 5, printing the number each time.
while current_number <= 5:
print(current_number)
current_number = current_number - 1
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1
0
-1
-2
-3
...
In this example, we accidentally started counting down. The value of current_number will always be less than 5, so the loop will run forever.
This challenge is inspired by a story about the mathematician Carl Frederich Gauss. As the story goes, when young Gauss was in grade school his teacher got mad at his class one day.
"I'll keep the lot of you busy for a while", the teacher said sternly to the group. "You are to add the numbers from 1 to 100, and you are not to say a word until you are done."
The teacher expected a good period of quiet time, but a moment later our mathematician-to-be raised his hand with the answer. "It's 5050!" Gauss had realized that if you list all the numbers from 1 to 100, you can always match the first and last numbers in the list and get a common answer:
1, 2, 3, ..., 98, 99, 100
1 + 100 = 101
2 + 99 = 101
3 + 98 = 101
Gauss realized there were exactly 50 pairs of numbers in the range 1 to 100, so he did a quick calculation: 50 * 101 = 5050.
gauss_addition(list(range(1,101)))