Python - Performing different tasks based input() data-type

Question

Edit: This post differs from Asking the user for input until they give a valid response because I do not end the loop based on data type of the response. Both strings and integers are valid. The loop should only kick-back if the two entries are different data types.

I'm trying to collect either two words, or two integers via input(). If both values are integers I want to calculate answer1**answer2. If both are non-integers, I want to concatenate the strings. Finally, if the data-types do not match, I want to send the user to the beginning to enter two new values.

Here's my attempt. I apologize in advance for what you're about to see.

## collect first value
print("Please type a word or an integer:")
answer1 = input()

## check for blanks
if answer1 == "":
    print("Blank space detected. Please retry.")
    answer1 = input()

## collect second value
print("Please type another word or integer:")
answer2 = input()

## check for blanks
if answer2 == "":
    print("Blank space detected. Please retry.")
    answer2 = input()

## define test for integer status
def containsInt(intTest):
    try: 
        int(intTest)
        return True
    except ValueError:
        pass

## check for matching data types and produce final value
if containsInt(answer1) == True:
    containsInt(answer2)
    if containsInt(answer2) == True:
        finalInt = (int(answer1))**(int(answer2))
        print("\n")
        print(finalInt)
    else:
        print("Sorry, the data types must match - both words or integers.")
        continue
else:
    containsInt(answer2)
    if containsInt(answer2) !=True:
        print("\n")
        print(answer1 + answer2)
    else:
        print("Sorry, the data types must match - both words or integers.")
        continue

I tried to use "continue" to get it to go back to the beginning, but it becomes angry at me. You can probably tell I'm a complete newb, and this is my first post. Please don't rip on me too hard. :(

Does this answer your question? [Asking the user for input until they give a valid response](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23294658/asking-the-user-for-input-until-they-give-a-valid-response) — rdas, Feb 22 '21 at 07:54

Aarni Joensuu · Answer 1 · 2021-02-22T09:15:43.293

continue only works for loops, that is for and while. You are trying to use continue outside of a loop and that is why Python does not like it.

One thing you could do is check if the data types match and then do things based on that:

if type(answer1) == type(answer2):
    if isinstance(answer1, str):
        # do string stuff
    elif isinstance(answer1, int) or isinstance(answer1, float):
        # do calculations
    else:
        # types match but are not strings or numbers
else:
    # types don't match, react accordingly

By default Python treats inputs as strings, so even if give a number to the input, it will be of type string. You can work through this in many ways, one of which is that you e.g. attempt to transform the input to a number. float works better than int in this case, since otherwise you could not handle decimals well. Example:

answer1 = input()
try:
    answer1 = float(answer)
except:
    pass

What this does is that you attempt to transform the string-by-default input into a floating point number, and if that does not work, then it stays as a string.

Thank you for your contribution! Unfortunately, this is telling me that everything matches. I used ```print(type(answer1))``` and ```print(type(answer2))``` to determine that, even when I type in an integer into the input() it is treating it as a string. — slightlyartistic, Feb 22 '21 at 08:22

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 22 '21 at 09:38

This should work:

while True:
    answer1 = input("Please type a word or an integer:")

    # check for blanks
    while answer1 == "":
        answer1 = input("Blank space detected. Please retry.")

    try:
        answer1 = int(answer1)
    except ValueError:
        pass

    answer2 = input("Please type another word or integer:")

    # check for blanks
    while answer2 == "":
        answer2 = input("Blank space detected. Please retry.")

    try:
        answer2 = int(answer2)
    except ValueError:
        pass

    if type(answer1) == type(answer2):
        if type(answer1) == str:
            print(answer1 + answer2)
            break
        elif type(answer1) == int:
            print(answer1**answer2)
            break
    else:
        print(f"Sorry, the data types of '{answer1}' and '{answer2}' do not match.")
        continue

Do note that if you input a number like 1.5 it will be treated as a string. so the inputs 1.5 and a will result in 1.5a

This works perfectly!! Thank you so much. – slightlyartistic Feb 22 '21 at 20:56 — slightlyartistic, Feb 22 '21 at 20:56

Python - Performing different tasks based input() data-type

2 Answers2