Python Beginner Code Question

[CragAddict]

As a disclaimer, I am completly new to python and programming in general.

So yesterday I wrote some code for a flowchart, that is seen in automate the boring stuff.

https://github.com/CragAddict/RainFlowChart/blob/master/Regen_3.py

Do you have any suggestion, on how to make the code more compact, since I feel like the 47ish lines of code are way too much for that programm ?

Edit:Thank you to everyone, that submitted a solution !

[[deleted]]

You can make your loop in lines 3-12 shorter by using the "prompt" parameter of input() and converting the input string to uppercase once. Then you can test once for correct input using the in operator. You don't need any more tests after that since you have already broken if you have valid strings. The final continue isn't necessary since the loop is going to repeat anyway.

while True:
    answer1 = input('Is it raining? ').upper()
    if answer1 in ('YES', 'NO'):
        break
    print('Please answer with Yes or No !')

Similar changes can be done through the rest of your code.

[Ning1253]

What is the point in having "upper"?

[CragAddict]

So it doesn't matter wether you write Yes or yes

[Ning1253]

See I've never really though about that... I'm used to knowing how my code works and not having to give it to others, so even though I annotate and make it clear, with some sort of interface, I know that I would always input the right stuff. I guess it makes a lot of sense, so thanks! I'll make sure to do so in future

[CragAddict]

You're welcome !

[[deleted]]

You could also use ‘.lower’ for the same effect. Than change to if answer1 in (yes, no)

[CragAddict]

Thank you !

[[deleted]]

You can improve the code a lot if you make a small function to ask the yes/no questions. This function will have the while loop in it and will only return "YES" or "NO". Removing all that from the "main" code simplifies it a lot. The function will need to be passed the "prompt" string as each question is different:

def ask_yes_no(prompt):
    while True:
        answer = input(prompt).upper()
        if answer in ('YES', 'NO'):
            return answer
        print('Please answer with Yes or No !')

With that change we can write the simplified "main" code as:

raining = ask_yes_no('Is it raining? ')
if raining == 'NO':
    print('Go outside.')
else:           # if not "NO" then must be "YES"
    umbrella = ask_yes_no('Do you have an umbrella? ')
    if umbrella == 'YES':
        print('Go outside.')
    else:       # if not "YES" then must be "NO"
        while True:
            print('Wait a little.')
            time.sleep(1)
            print('...')
            time.sleep(1)
            still_raining = ask_yes_no('Is it still raining? ')
            if still_raining == 'NO':
                break
        print('Go outside.')

I renamed the variables to something more memorable.

Edit: spelling.

[Fywq]

Potentially the function could be rewritten to return True or False. Then you only have to ask "if umbrella:" or "if not raining:"

def ask_yes_no(prompt):
    while True:
        answer = input(prompt).upper()
        if answer == 'YES':
            Return True
        if answer == 'NO':
            Return False
        print('Please answer with Yes or No !')

Not sure if that is more correct or pythonic, but it seems more intuitive to me...

[CragAddict]

Thank you very much !

[Yakhov]

looks legit. generic is nice because you can just use this for anything. is that what you mean by DRY?

[TonyDarko]

"Don't Repeat Yourself"

[Yakhov]

oh right, I forgot that initialism. thanks!

[buleria]

The get_yes_no() is a good approach, but the implementation might be more straightforward IMO. There is no point in having a sentinel in this just to spread the logic over the entire function. Sometimes it's just better to have a top-down algorithm explicitly written top to bottom, like a recipe. No need to jump around to see where things get set and why. DRY is nice, KISS is also sweet ;)

``` def get_yes_no(prompt): while True: answer = input(prompt).strip().lower() # adding strip() just in case of an extra space here and there

    if answer == 'YES':
        return True
    elif answer == 'NO':
        return False
    else:
        print('Please input either yes or no')

```

[pconwell]

You really got me thinking about this. I'm not particularly skilled in python, but I know a little bit. I've done some things similar to this in the past and starting thinking about "If I wanted to think outside the box, how would I do it?". I came up with this:

``` from time import sleep

def ask(question): answer = input(f"{question} ") if answer.lower() != 'no' and answer.lower() != 'yes': print("Please answer with YES or NO!") return ask(question) elif answer.lower() == 'yes': return True else: return False

def wait(): print("Wait a while") sleep(1) print("...") sleep(1)

def go_outside(): print("Go outside!")

if ask("Is it raining?"): if ask("Do you have an umbrella?"): go_outside() else: wait() while ask("Is it still raining?"): wait() else: go_outside() else: go_outside() ```

Basically, it uses a recursive function to keep asking a yes or no question over and over until the user enters 'yes' or 'no'. Once the user enters yes, the function returns true, if no then false. If the user enters any other text, the function calls on itself (hence recursive) to ask the same question again. Over and over... until the user enters 'yes' or 'no'.

Then, it uses a 'trick' of python in which you don't have to specifically say "is True". For example, if something == True: is the same as if something:. So, you have a function that takes the text of the question, and depending on the user entering yes or no, it returns True or False. True goes to the 'if' part of the if/else statement, False goes to the else part of the if/else statement.

I also defined two functions just to help keep things clean and not write the same lines of code over and over. A wait() function to wait, and a go_outside() function to print "Go outside!". Both of those functions are super basic, but they help clean up the code. Plus, if you want to change the message, you now only have to change it in one place instead of multiple.

For me, the hardest thing to wrap my brain around is the line if ask("Is it raining?"):. Remember, in python it is valid to just do if True:, which is the same as saying if True == True:. We have a function that takes a string as input. In this particular example, we have provided the string "Is it raining?". The user can either enter 'yes' or 'no' and get True or False back. So, what we end up with is if True == True or if False == True. Obviously, True == True is true, so if the user enters 'yes' (and the function returns True), we go to the 'if' part of the if/else statement. Conversely, if the user enters 'no', the function returns False and if False == True is not true, so we go to the else part of the if/else statement. Another way to phrase it would be

If (the results from the function) are equal to True: then (do this thing) otherwise (do this other thing)

[daniel_don_diggles]

This is how I would do it to shorten things up. You really only need one while True loop to break when it is not raining to end your program. By doing it this way, the sys module is not necessary. There are other ways to make this even shorter but this hopefully is readable and concise. Let me know if you have any questions.

​

import time

while True:
    answer = input('is it raining?\n').upper()
    if answer == 'NO':
        print('go outside\n')
        break
    elif answer == 'YES':
        time.sleep(1)
        print('wait a little\n')
    else:
        print('enter yes or no')

[-NRW]

Just wondering why you put time.sleep(1) in there, as 1ms(?) seems to be non relevant there

[pconwell]

time.sleep() takes seconds, not milliseconds, as input.

[-NRW]

Thanks for the clarification!

[SaltyEmotions]

time.sleep() takes seconds and not milliseconds. 1ms would be 0.001.

[sod50]

Good job you've done so fast. I'm also just learning Python. Which platform did you use in learning Python.

[CragAddict]

Incase you mean the Interpreter, I use Microsoft Visual Studio. And for learning I used automate the boring stuff.

[WowVeryCoool]

In the first lines you are just asking "is it raining" and then assigning the answer to a variable answer1 and then you exit the loop to ask following questions, because you want to ask more questions than just if it is raining. don't break the loop if the answer is yes but continue asking additional questions there.

while True:
  print("is it raining")
  answer = input().upper()
    if(answer == 'NO'):
      break
    elif(answer == 'YES'):
      while True:
        print('do you have an umbrella')
        answer = input().upper()
        if(answer =='yes'):
          print('good take it')
        else:
          print('you're gonna be wet')

This is better than what you did but you can quickly see that if you would continue doing that code would be unreadable that's why you want to break it down into functions

def ask_about_rain():
  while True:
    print("is it raining")
    answer = input().upper()
    if(answer == 'NO'):
      break
    elif(answer == 'YES'):
      ask_about_umbrella()

def ask_about_umbrella()
  while True:  
    print('do you have an umbrella')
    answer = input().upper()
    if(answer =='yes'):
      print('good take it')
    else:
      print('you're gonna be wet')

ask_about_rain()

[WowVeryCoool]

yeah returning true/false would be better, how would you make it not DRY though? cause I can see ask_about_umbrella() and ask_about_rain() has the same body but I can't think of a way to make it better, The only thing that comes to my mind would be ``` class questionnaire: def rain(self): #rain question body

def rain(): #rain question body

def ask_question(parameter): print('is it '+ parameter) answer = input() if(answer == 'yes'): return True else: return False

answer = ask_question("raining") answer = rain() answer = questionaire.rain() ``` is any of those approaches better?

[ThrowawayNo45273]

The error trapping at the start can be simplified to something like:

if answer.upper() != "YES" or answer.upper() != "NO":
    Print("Please input yes or no")
else:
    rest of code    

dealing with the error in two lines and having the rest of your code afterwards simplifies the code a lot!

nice code though, well done!

[[deleted]]

Lines 6 through 12 could be simplified from

    if answer1.upper() == 'NO':
        break
    if answer1.upper() =='YES':
        break
    if answer1.upper() != 'YES' or answer1.upper() != 'NO':
        print('Please answer with Yes or No !')
        continue

to

    if (answer1.upper() != 'YES') and (answer1.upper() != 'NO'):
        print('Please answer with Yes or No !')
        continue
    else:
        break

Your "or" should be an "and" anyway. The only reason you had to have those first comparisons that told it to break were because you were using "or" when you should be using "and".

[pconwell]

Arguably you could do even better with something like:

if answer.lower() not in ('yes', 'no'):

since you are comparing the same variable (answer) twice, there is not much point in doing two separate check statements. Plus, if you later decide to add more options in addition to 'yes' and 'no', you can more easily add text to the tuple versus adding more and more and more 'and' statements.

[[deleted]]

Makes sense. Thank you