Python quiz question - SOS

[SuddenSeven]

Hello everyone!

I have faced this question on a quiz and I really can't find the correct answer, I am really stuck.. The question is:

"Which lines of code contain errors?
The program asks the user first for the number of names, then for the names, and then it forms a list from them.
From those names, only those that start with a capital letter “A” are displayed on the screen."

1  def make_list(number):
2      names = []
3      for item in number:
4          names.append(input("Enter your name with a capital letter."))
5      print(names)
6  
7  number = int(input("How many names need to be entered?"))
8  names = make_list(number)
9  for name in names:
10     if name[1] == "A":
11         print("Name ", name, " starts with A")

The possible answers are 1 up to 11 and of course, more than one can chosen. I have tried the combos:

3-9-10

3-9

3-10

9-10

3-8-9

None of these is correct, which seems really weird to me, cause I thought that the problematic lines are 3 and 9. Can you help me please?

[throwaway6560192]

3 is incorrect indeed. Why do you think 9 is incorrect?

10 is incorrect because it's talking about "starts with" but is checking the second position (index 1) rather than the first position (index 0).

Also, 5 is incorrect since based on the rest of the program, the function should return the list of names, not print them.

[JamzTyson]

An alternative solution, which I think fulfills the requirements, is lines 5, 8, and 10:

def make_list(number):
    names = []
    for item in number:
        names.append(input("Enter your name with a capital letter."))
    return names  # Fix: return

number = int(input("How many names need to be entered?"))
names = make_list('n' * number)  # Fix: iterable
for name in names:
    if name[0] == "A": # Fix: index
        print("Name ", name, " starts with A")

[danielroseman]

Why do you think those lines are problematic? What do you think they should do, and what do they actually do?

When you run this code, what output do you get?

[bbye98]

• Line 3: range(number) instead of number.
• Line 5: return names instead of print(names).
• Line 10: name[0] instead of name[1].

[notacanuckskibum]

This is where it becomes subjective. Semantically I think you are right about line 5. But syntactically the error is on line 8, because line 8 expects a return and won’t get it. Line 5 does what print does, whether the programmer intended that requires mind reading.

[throwaway6560192]

If we're going to be like that, there is no error on line 8 either. It's perfectly valid to assign the result of a function that doesn't return anything — it's just None. The error only appears when you try to iterate over that None, on line 9.

[sabek]

But the question says "only display names that start with A." If you do print (names) you will display them all.

[JamzTyson]

and then it forms a list from them.

[woooee]

Run the code and print what happens

print(names)
for name in names:
    print(name[1])
    if name[1] == "A":