[Tutor] Why isn't my simple if elif script not working?

[Andre' Walker-Loud]

> 
> On Jul 17, 2012, at 10:29 PM, Alexandre Zani wrote:
> 
> 
> On Tue, Jul 17, 2012 at 10:21 PM, Andre' Walker-Loud
> <walksloud at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi Santosh,
>> 
>> On Jul 17, 2012, at 10:09 PM, Santosh Kumar wrote:
>> 
>>> Here is my script:
>>> 
>>> name = raw_input("What's your name? ")
>>> 
>>> if name == "Santosh":
>>>   print "Hey!! I have the same name."
>>> elif name == "John Cleese" or "Michael Palin":
>>>   print "I have no preference about your name. Really!!"
>>> else:
>>>   print "You have a nice name."
>>> 
>>> 
>>> The if part works well. The elif part works well too. The problem is
>>> even if you enter strings other than "Santosh", "John Cleese" and
>>> "Michael Palin" you still get the print from elif part, not from else
>>> part.
>> 
>> you just have to be careful with the multiple boolean line in the elif.  You can use either
>> 
>> elif name == ("John Cleese" or "Michael Palin"):
> 
> That won't work.
> 
>>>> "John Cleese" == ("John Cleese" or "Michael Palin")
> True
>>>> "Michael Palin" == ("John Cleese" or "Michael Palin")
> False
>>>> ("John Cleese" or "Michael Palin")
> 'John Cleese'
> 
> Python will look at the expression ("John Cleese" or "Michael Palin")
> since bool("John Cleese") is True, the expression immediately
> evaluates to "John Cleese" and the elif clause becomes equivalent to
> name == "John Cleese"

thanks - I fell into the same trap!  I tried it in my terminal but it worked for the same reason as the OP.

Andre