If statement is not evaluating as True even when condition is met

Question

I'm trying to learn how to do user input validation and build off this post How to return a specific point after an error in 'while' loop

I believe the issue is when current_answer is evaluated against the answer list. Regardless of what I enter for a number, the 'else' statement kicks in.

def input_validator(question, answers):
    while True:
        current_answer = input(question)
        if current_answer in answers:
            print('Success')
            break
        print ('Failure')
    return current_answer

inputQuarter = input_validator('What quarter is being processed (1,2,3,4)?: ', [1,2,3,4] )

I'm assuming the problem lies with something I don't understand about breaking the for loop because the if/else statement seems to work fine outside of the loop.

What is your intended output, and what are the current results? — Daniyal Warraich, Aug 12 '21 at 23:54
`input()` returns a string, `answers` contains numbers. So either convert the input to a number, or change `answers` to a list of strings. — Barmar, Aug 12 '21 at 23:54
It has nothing to do with the loop. The `if` statement should not work outside it. — Barmar, Aug 12 '21 at 23:55
What is being returned and what is intended to be returned from the function. — Daniyal Warraich, Aug 12 '21 at 23:55
Are you comparing a string with an integer? Try converting all to string before comparing. — John Mee, Aug 12 '21 at 23:56
Sorry; at first I thought your comment was directed at me, and realized it's not. — Daniyal Warraich, Aug 12 '21 at 23:58
If you ever think that an `if` statement is not working, it's almost surely because your condition is not written correctly. — Barmar, Aug 13 '21 at 00:00

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 13 '21 at 15:05

When you call the function here:

inputQuarter = input_validator('What quarter is being processed (1,2,3,4)?: ', [1,2,3,4] )

Then the answers going to hold a list with the values: [1,2,3,4], that is 4 integers. When you call the function input() like this:

current_answer = input(question)

No matter what is the input the user gave you, it will never be evaluated to True here:

if current_answer in answers:

Because answers hold list of integers and input() returns a string. Therefore current_answer is a string.

You can solve this in 2 ways:

Make the list as list of strings:

inputQuarter = input_validator('What quarter is being processed (1,2,3,4)?: ', ["1","2","3","4"] )

Make the current_answer to an integer:

current_answer = int(input(question))

I personally prefer the first, because it will work for more complicated answers as well (Just know that it will be case sensitive!).

If statement is not evaluating as True even when condition is met

1 Answers1