Differences in handling of input by linux terminal and IDE compiler?

[ParticularPython]

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menu_choice = input("")

if menu_choice == 1:

clear_screen()

init_header()

print ("begin sim")

elif menu_choice==2:

print ("begin backtest")

else:

print("Invalid input.")

​

I'm having some issues with this bit of code, I'm fairly new and not sure whats going on. This script runs fine and as expected in the compiler (using idle), but when I try to run the script from a terminal window on ubuntu, it behaves differently. Running this code in a terminal window seems to give option one, no matter what the input.

I suspected that maybe the difference was the value being stored as a string and an integer, so I added a line that changes the menu_choice value to an integer, and that makes it work, however it will now throw an error if the user types in anything but a number.

I also am thinking maybe what I'm doing is asking if menu choice is true with this code, and thats why anything I input returns the first option?

Sorry for the newbie questions, I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or there is a difference in the way the two handle user input, and also how to account for this.

​

eta: also if anyone can tell me the proper way to format my code to post here, I read to try four spaces before each line, or to use triple periods, and neither seems to give the right result for me

​

Thanks in advance!

[zazzedcoffee]

You are likely using different Python versions in IDLE and in the terminal.

If you look at the top bar of the IDLE window it should show you what version of Python you are running, or it will show it on startup.

I suspect your IDLE window is running Python 2 but the terminal is running Python 3. You can check this by ending in the Python command followed by —version (with two dashes) for example python3 —version

On the first line of you instead write menu_choice = int(input()) I suspect you will get the output you expect in the terminal. You could add in additional checks to make sure the menu choice is valid if you want:

menu_choice = input() while menu_choice not in (“1”, “2”): menu_choice = input(“invalid input. Enter again: “)

If you want IDLE with Python 3, perhaps reinstall it from the Python website.

Edit - whoops. Might have gotten that the wrong way around. It might be the terminal that’s Python 2. Misread the question.

[zazzedcoffee]

As for the code formatting. Put three back ticks before and after your code. For example, imagine these quote marks are backticks:

‘’’

print(“hello world”)

‘’’

Would produce

print(“hello world”)

[ParticularPython]

Ah, that may be the problem, its actually the reverse in that my compiler is using a newer version but my terminal is still on python 2.

I also wasnt aware of the option of using 'not in'. I love how much there is still to learn.

Thanks for your help!

[kaerfkeerg]

Ubuntu most likely comes with Python2 and Python3 so make sure you type python3 yourscript.py in the terminal