[Tutor] all right students, what do we learn

[Clayton Kirkwood]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Tutor [mailto:tutor-bounces+crk=godblessthe.us at python.org] On
>Behalf Of Alan Gauld
>Sent: Sunday, November 02, 2014 1:04 AM
>To: tutor at python.org
>Subject: Re: [Tutor] all right students, what do we learn
>
>On 02/11/14 05:43, Clayton Kirkwood wrote:
>
>> So I head down the path of all sorts of variations of the following.
>> And I mean all sorts. Instead of [reenter, key_columns] I used a
>> single list. Instead of the exec('reenter = True') I used a simple
>> reenter=True (and an eval and compile which I don't totally understand
>yet).
>
>Don't use exec, eval or compile. Consider them for experts only and
>hardly ever needed.
>
>They are extremely dangerous and doubly so if you don't know exactly
>what you are doing. You could, for example, wind up accidentally
>deleting your files or formatting your hard disk.


Got it. I'll wait until next month:<}}}

>
>> out that python doesn't seem to like an assignment in the overall if
>> clause - error.
>
>Correct, the if statement requires an expression (specifically a boolean
>expression). And assignments are not expressions.

My thinking was that I was making a Boolean value:


]=[(reenter, key) for key in key_list if
>> ((key in key_list0)) or (print("Error:", key, "not available, start
>> again") and exec('reenter = True', ))]


In the first case, key is in key_list0 so that is a True and we are finished
for that key. In the other case, key is not in key_list0 so we go on past
the or. I print which returns a non-False, ergo a True, and then I make an
assignment which should be a True. This was I am able to set reenter to
True. Assignments create a Boolean True (or should). 

The other issue is that I had the outside reenter set as true to start the
for and turn it False so that the for won't re-occur unless I have a bad key
and force reenter to be a True. 


>
>> Weird thing, entering   a y   would make the final
>> print spit out (False, 'a') (False, 'o') but the entry of  hhh
>caused
>> the final print to spit out []
>
>Why do you think that weird? Its exactly what I'd expect. You don't have
>a key 'hhh' in the data you showed us.
>
>Remember that the comprehension is trying to build a list containing
>only those output expressions that match the if clause. If the if fails
>then nothing gets put in the output.

Again, the code, if the equal sign worked would always force a True. In one
case reenter doesn't change, in the second case, reenter does change but the
expression is still True.


>
>> Which I don't quite understand. The reason is because I set up the if
>> statement to be True either way. With an   a   it would go thru and
>> create the proper output.
>
>Can you explain in English what you want the output to be?
>The reason I ask is that you seem to be creating a list of pairs where
>the first element is the result of the 'in' test and the second is the
>value. Do you really want that or do you just want the ones that match
>either true or false?

What I would expect from [('a', 'apple'), ('b', 'banana')] and entering a y
Would be:
[('a',True), ('y', False)]

If I entered only 'y' I would expect
[('y', False)]		but this won't work because I can't use the '=' in
the if clause even though it returns a True


>
>If you really want the result/value pair then a better way to write your
>comprehension is to use the in test in the output, like so:
>
>result = [(key in key_list0, key) for key in key_list]
>
>That doesn't print any error messages but the end list should be the
>same as the one you produced.
>
>> reenter=True
>> while reenter:
>>      reenter=False
>>      key_list = input('Please enter space separated keys in the order
>> you want: ').split()
>>
>>      [reenter, key_columns ]=[(reenter, key) for key in key_list if
>> ((key in key_list0)) or (print("Error:", key, "not available, start
>> again") and exec('reenter = True', ))]
>>
>>      print(reenter,key_columns)
>
>My translation of the above into English is:
>
>"Keep asking the user for keys until they hit upon a list that is all
>valid and create a list of corresponding values."
>
>Is that correct?

Absotively

>
>If so I'd write it like this:
>
>prompt = 'Please enter space separated keys in the order you want: '
>while True:  # keep going round till we break
>    key_list = input(prompt).split()
>    if all(key in key_list0 for key in key_list):
>       break
>
>result = [(key, key_columns) for key in key_list]
>
>However, there is a bit of inconsistency with your data - for example
>where does key_columns come from? It's going to be the same value for
>each key. So the last line might be better as:
>
>result = [pair for pair in key_list0 if pair[0] in key_list]
>
>Which would give you a list containing each user key and its
>corresponding value from key_list0.

Yes, this approaches what my goal is, but it doesn't indicate which if any
bad keys ([pair[0]) are there, ergo, wanting to return a False if the key
didn't exist in both lists. Your snippet definitely removes all bad keys,
however.


Clayton

>
>Is that something like what you want?
>
>--
>Alan G
>Author of the Learn to Program web site
>http://www.alan-g.me.uk/
>http://www.flickr.com/photos/alangauldphotos
>
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