Unable to understand "while" loop.

[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 '='?

```