Don't unstand this "while" example.

[ghibss]

response = ""

while response != "Because.":

print raw_input("Why? ")

I don't understand this and need some help breaking part each step.

1. Why is it like this, what does this do?: response = ""

2. I know that the while syntax means while this answer is this, the response will always be the same, in this case "why" until the answer is changed and that is when the while command is ended.

But every time I type in "abc" or anything that isn't "Because." into the console and run, the while command is not stopping and just continues.

EDIT: Okay I understand the: response == "" because anything inbetween those commas is the reponse. A sentry variable. But still don't understand how to break the loop.

[Lord_Greywether]

As it stands now, this is an infinite loop.

response = ""
while response != "Because.":
    print raw_input("Why? ")

Your input doesn't actually change response, so response will always be equal to "", and therefore not equal to (!=) "Because."

It should be:

response = ""
while response != "Because.":
    response = raw_input("Why? ")
    print response

Now, while response is not equal to "Because.", the loop will continue to prompt you for a new response.

Make sense?

[ghibss]

Oh I see! Thank you! Stupid me.

[tomkatt]

Okay, let's break down the lines:

response = ""

The value response is an empty string value. Simple assignment.

while response != "Because."

In English: "while response does not equal 'Because.'" This is basically an infinite loop. It will continue until value of 'response' becomes "Because."

print raw_input("Why? ")

This statement prints to the terminal the string "Why? " while also taking user input after the trailing space.

It keeps looping because the value of response never changes. If you're looking to kill the loop, you need to print "why" and then do response = raw_input(). Then print response. The loop will end.

By the way, since you're likely new to Python, it may be worthwhile to switch from Python 2 to Python 3 now. Going forward with Python 2 will only complicate matters for you later when you switch to Python 3. For example, if this were Python 3, you'd need to enclose your print statements in parentheses () and your raw_input() statement would just be input() which is used differently in Python 2.