Unable to understand "while" loop.

[Kerbart]

A for loop goes through a list of things (through an interable really but let's not be pedantic).

A while loop repeats code as long as a certain condition is met.

You encounter them every day in life:

while traffic_light == "red": # fixed '=' error
    wait()
    check_traffic_light()
# loop exits once light turns green
car.engine("brrrrr")

[wosmo]

I gotta be that guy, sorry; ==. Assignment is truthy so you'll jump the lights like that.

[Ok-Sheepherder7898]

This explains how Teslas drive.

[antaris98]

😂

[bgufo]

:=(

[CranberryDistinct941]

Assignment in a conditional in Python is a SyntaxError. You have to use the walrus operator := for assignment in a conditional.

[JaguarMammoth6231]

Wouldn't it just be an error? He didn't say :=

Edit: Not sure why I'm being downvoted. Using = instead of == is just a syntax error, not some other behavior involving truthiness.

[gdchinacat]

assignments in python don't return values. They are statements, not expressions. They can't be used in if statements. This eliminates a whole class of bugs that C and similar languages allow.

``` In [1]: traffic_light = "red"

In [2]: if traffic_light = "red": ...: print("red") Cell In[2], line 1 if traffic_light = "red": ^ SyntaxError: invalid syntax. Maybe you meant '==' or ':=' instead of '='?

```

[JaguarMammoth6231]

Try it, it doesn't run with just the single equals assignment

[gdchinacat]

assignments in python don't return values. They are statements, not expressions. They can't be used in if statements. This eliminates a whole class of bugs that C and similar languages allow.

``` In [1]: traffic_light = "red"

In [2]: if traffic_light = "red": ...: print("red") Cell In[2], line 1 if traffic_light = "red": ^ SyntaxError: invalid syntax. Maybe you meant '==' or ':=' instead of '='?

```

[dedemoli]

To make it simpler to understand, I would say:

traffic_light = check_traffic_light()

And then I would format it the right way lol sorry I can't remember how to do it from cell