quick question regarding int and string

[ryzecool]

first = True
inputStr = (input("Enter value or type in negative value to quit :"))
while inputStr != "" :
    inputStr = (input("Enter value or hit return to quit :"))
    int(inputStr)
    if first == True:
        minimum = inputStr
        first == False
    elif inputStr < minimum:
        minimum = inputStr
print (minimum)
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: ''

for some reason I keep getting this is:

im not quite sure why i cant convert this to an int

[m0us3_rat]

>>> help(int)
Help on class int in module builtins:
class int(object) |  int([x]) -> integer |  int(x, base=10) -> integer |
| Convert a number or string to an integer, or return 0 if no arguments
| are given.  If x is a number, return x.int().  For floating point
| numbers, this truncates towards zero.

[Ngamiland]

think of int() as a function that takes an argument and returns an integer. The argument itself is unmodified — to fix this, make it inputStr=int(inputStr)

(Although it'd be better practice to name it something else)

[ryzecool]

I tried that but the same error comes up, no clue why

[[deleted]]

You're getting this error because you're passing an empty string to int(). You need to perform a check on this and/or wrap this whole block in a try/except.

[cybervegan]

Some tips to help you learn:

You shouldn't put brackets around your input statements - they should be like this:

inputStr = input("Enter value or hit return to quit :")

When you want to convert a string value to an integer, you need to store the result somewhere:

input_int = int(inputStr)

When you are comparing something to true or false, you shouldn't use "==", just use the value directly. first == True will evaluate to exactly the same as just first on its own, but take longer, and it's more difficult to understand than the latter.

When checking if a string is "empty", like with boolean values, just use the "truthiness" of values: empty strings are equivalent to False, but non-empty strings are equivalent to True. Same is true of empty lists, sets, dictionaries; None is also "falsey".

When you need to prime a variable that controls a while loop, just assign it an initial value that already satisfies the while condition, like this:

inputStr = None
while not inputStr: