[Tutor] While truth
Cameron Simpson
cs at zip.com.au
Tue May 20 12:00:12 CEST 2014
On 20May2014 08:25, Ian D <duxbuz at hotmail.com> wrote:
>I was reading a tutorial that had these examples in it:
>
>>>> while False:
> print("False is the new True.")
>
>>>> while 6:
> print("Which numbers are True?")
>
>while -1:
> print("Which numbers are True?")
>
>while 0:
> print("Which numbers are True?")
>
>Unfortunately the author never explained these statements.
That is a pity. Sounds badly written.
I would imagine the intent is that you could try these and see what happens. I
think that exercise would be more effective with if-statements instead of
while-statements.
Basicly, the point is likely to show that you do not need to use a "bool" as
the while condition; any value considered "truthy" by Python will do if it
matches what you are working with.
Broadly, None and 0 and False and "empty" collections (empty lists, empty sets,
zero length strings, etc) are "false", and most other things are "true".
Cheers,
Cameron Simpson <cs at zip.com.au>
Rugby is a beastly game played by gentlemen; soccer is a gentleman's game
played by beasts; football is a beastly game played by beasts.
- Henry Blaha
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