Line-by-Line Lists - Python

Question

I'm trying to give the user of my "Terminal" a list from which they can choose what to do. But when I run my program, it includes the brackets as well. It still runs as normal, but it just looks a bit funny:

user_want_to_do = ["Open Google", "Access Files", "Exit Terminal"]
print("\n")
print(user_want_to_do)
opt = input("Please input what you want to do from the list above:")

Any Suggestions?

So do you expect the user to type (without any mistake) the exact sentence they want to choose? Doesn't seem user friendly if you ask me. Why not ask them to type a single character (digit?) that identifies the choice? — trincot, Jul 10 '23 at 10:15
Have a look at this: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37565793/how-to-let-the-user-select-an-input-from-a-finite-list — Meiswjn, Jul 10 '23 at 10:18
If you don't want the square brackets, then don't try to print a list directly. Print strings instead. — Tom Karzes, Jul 10 '23 at 10:18
I could... but you don't see Windows asking you to type 1 for Files, 2 for Google... It just doesn't seen right. But I see where you're coming from:) — F4TAL_3RR0R.exe, Jul 10 '23 at 10:18

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 10 '23 at 10:21

3

You can just print them as strings by joining them

" ".join(user_want_to_do)

A "prettier" solution -

user_want_to_do = ["Open Google", "Access Files", "Exit Terminal"]

for i, item in enumerate(user_want_to_do, start=1):
    print(f"{i}. {item}")

Prints the list as a numbered list

answered Jul 10 '23 at 10:21

Gopick

61
5

Just comes up as an invalid syntax on the last speech marks in the last line. – F4TAL_3RR0R.exe Jul 10 '23 at 10:23
@F4TAL_3RR0R.exe There's no invalid syntax in the code (unless you are using python 2.x or a very old python 3 version) – Sembei Norimaki Jul 10 '23 at 10:59
No, I'm running it on V.3.4.1. It just comes up with an invalid syntax on the final set of speech marks. – F4TAL_3RR0R.exe Jul 11 '23 at 10:49

Alain T. · Answer 2 · 2023-07-17T12:39:48.923

1

You can print without the brackets with unpacking:

user_want_to_do = ["Open Google", "Access Files", "Exit Terminal"]

print(*user_want_to_do, sep=", ") # removes quotes as well

output:

Open Google, Access Files, Exit Terminal

If you want them on separate lines instead:

print(*user_want_to_do, sep="\n")

output:

Open Google
Access Files
Exit Terminal

If you want to keep the quotes you can map the strings to the repr function:

print(*map(repr,user_want_to_do), sep=", ")

output:

'Open Google', 'Access Files', 'Exit Terminal'

or strip brackets from the list's representation:

print(repr(user_want_to_do).strip('[]'))

output:

'Open Google', 'Access Files', 'Exit Terminal'

edited Jul 17 '23 at 12:39

answered Jul 10 '23 at 17:11

Alain T.

40,517
4
31
51

Code doesn't run; it just throws up an error message on "Google". – F4TAL_3RR0R.exe Jul 17 '23 at 10:24
Code only has one line and works on my computer. Did you try to run the sample output ? (I now separated the output in my answer to avoid confusion) – Alain T. Jul 17 '23 at 12:38
That does work, yes, but part of the issue is the fact that the speech marks are still included. – F4TAL_3RR0R.exe Jul 18 '23 at 11:10
What do you mean by "speech marks" ? If you're referring to quotes, two of the four solutions I proposed remove them. If not, you should include the exact output you're looking for in your question. – Alain T. Jul 18 '23 at 12:38

Line-by-Line Lists - Python

2 Answers2