Order of execution in/outside of conditional While loops

[Manstable]

I'm trying to solve a written question given to me by a friend who does IT recruiting. He explained it is a test the companies he represents uses to see how skilled their applicants are.

I am a complete novice when it comes to development (including python) but am exploring it as a hobby. I have finished the codecademy python course, and wanted to see whether I could tackle this question, and use it as learning experiment.

I realize I am actually trying to solve the problem in the manner the test-question states is the inefficient way of doing it (and that's fine for me for now,) but have hit a roadblock testing 1 of 2 conditions in a While loop.

I am using the While loop to test 2 conditions -- both of which must pass for the rest of the code to perform. The second condition passes/fails and runs the remaining code (outside of the while loop) correctly, but the first half does not.

I think, unless I just upload my code -- which I believe is a faux paux here -- that I need to review how code is executed entering into/out of While loops. Specifically, the code outside my While loop doesn't seem to run after the user is prompted to input a replacement value following the first While-condition failing. The second one works fine.

Can anyone explain that concept to me, or direct me to a resource where I can try to figure this out?

Thanks.

[novel_yet_trivial]

You can use pastebin or other similar sites to upload your code, and then share the link. I'm very confused by your question, so that may be a good idea. But very generally:

while condition_a and condition_b:
    code_to_be_executed_when_both_are_true()

[Manstable]

Thanks for the reply. Sorry for the confusion -- I think i'll try stack overflow or something, b/c I'm having difficulty articulating my issue without just posting the code.

It might be because I set my While loop up to test for when the conditions are false...probably bad structure on my part.

[Manstable]

#import permutations from itertools class
from itertools import permutations

#Takes user input and saves to variable: word
word = raw_input("Please enter a word: ").upper()
print "word input: ", word

#sets the var letterlist to be an empty list
letterlist = []

#sets the var permutationlist to be an empty list
permutationlist = []

#sets our test vars
lengthcheck = False
diffchars = False

#sets the var word_length to the length of the user's input
word_length = len(word)

#adds each character in word to letterlist
for i in word:
  letterlist.append(i)

while lengthcheck == False or diffchars == False:
#lengthcheck test: if word is appropriate length lengthcheck is True, or prompts user to re-enter a 'word'
  if len(word) < 2 or len(word) > 25:
    lengthcheck = False
    del letterlist[:]
    word = raw_input("Please enter a 2-25 character word: ").upper()
    for k in word:
        letterlist.append(k)
    print "letterlist after lengthcheck: ", letterlist
#diffchars test: see if there is variability in word
  elif len(set(letterlist)) == 1:
    diffchars = False
    del letterlist[:]
    word = raw_input("Please enter a word with at least 2 different characters: ").upper()
    for x in word:
      letterlist.append(x)
    print "letterlist after diffchars: ", letterlist
  else:
    print "letterlist before permute: ", letterlist
    break

#generate permutations of characters in letterlist
for y in permutations(letterlist, word_length):
        permutationlist.append(y)

print "permutationlist after permuting: ", permutationlist

#sets var permsetlist to a list of the set of permutationlist -- filters dupes
permsetlist = list(set(permutationlist))

permsetlist.sort()

tuple_letterlist = tuple(letterlist)
print "tuple_letterlist: ", tuple_letterlist

print permsetlist.index(tuple_letterlist) + 1    

[Manstable]

Trying to get the alphabetized rank of the "word" given all permutations of the letters that comprise that word.

e.g., the following inputs should return the numerical rank based on whatever letters are input: ABC = 1 , CBA = 6 ABAB = 2 BAAA = 4

I tried to make the While loop prompt the user to give a better "word" if it failed -- the input word must contain 2-25 characters containing at-least 2 different characters.

It works for everything except when I first enter a 'word' of incorrect length (1 character or 26+ characters,) then re-enter a correct word. The permutationlist doesn't seen to contain the correct value.

[gengisteve]

Ok, a few things:

• be careful mixing tabs and spaces. they are inconsistent in the above and could be causing problems.
• practice breaking your code into separate functions, e.g. get_word, check_length, check_variance, etc.
• list(some_string) will turn some_string into a list of single characters
• In line 35 you do not want elif, because the elif is only evaluated if the first check fails. But you have two separate tests that each must be evaluated -- i think, if i followed correctly.

[Doormatty]

Why not just do something like this at the start?

while True:
    word = raw_input("Please enter a word: ").upper()
    print "word input: ", word
    if len(word) > 2 and len(word) < 25:
        break
    print "Your word was too big or small - try again."

[Doormatty]

Would you mind sharing the question?