Loops getting stuck at the wrong part in python - while-loop

For Some reason the loop wont carry out the command of yes and instead it just keeps repeating at the incorrect part
i tried changing the while to an if and it didn't help, I'm not sure why it doesn't work
FA=input ('Are there assignments to grade? Yes/No:')#FA refers to whether or not there are assignments to grade
FA=FA.upper()
while FA not in ('Yes', 'No'):
print ('Please enter a valid input: either Yes or No')
FA=input('Are there any assingments to grade? Yes/No:')
FA=FA.upper()
#outputs
while FA == 'Yes':

The loop is getting stuck because of FA=FA.upper(). Because for example if the user inputs Yes the string gets converted to uppercase i.e. YES which is interpreted differently from Yes.
If you are converting the input string to uppercase then you'll have to use uppercase strings to check for correct input.
Below is the correct way to check for input.
while FA not in ('YES', 'NO'): // Use uppercase strings to check if input was valid
print ('Please enter a valid input: either Yes or No')
FA=input('Are there any assingments to grade? Yes/No:')
FA=FA.upper() // Changes all letters to uppercase

Related

How is input handled in Brainf***?

I can't really seem to find a standard for this. I know inputs are taken as ASCII values, but are they required to be single characters? If not, how are multi-character inputs handled?
Command line inputs in most (if not all) programming languages are taken a line at a time. When you hit enter into a console after typing a line, the whole line gets sent into the program as a return value from the function you called to get the input.
In brainfuck, you have more control over this: You can get as many characters as you want at a time, and stop when you want to.
A single comma "," will get one byte's worth of input (a.k.a one character). If you want to handle getting a string until a newline is met, you can try implementing something like the following code (10 being the ascii value of newline and the number of repetitions of "+" and "-" chars):
[-]>,----------[++++++++++>,----------]<[<]
An array of non zero values starting and ending with zero values is saved into memory containing the ascii values of input chars.

How to check if input string contains a letter in TCL/TK scripting?

I have a script which reads a list of integers from arguments and stores into a list then reverses its order.
I am trying to look for a way to check if the input argument contains a letter so I can halt the program and throw a error message. Then exit the script.
How can I check if a certain string has a letter? This letter can be uppercase or lowercase.
Try
regexp {[[:alpha:]]} $string
returns 1 if there is a letter, 0 otherwise.
Documentation:
regexp,
Syntax of Tcl regular expressions

Limitting character input to specific characters

I'm making a fully working add and subtract program as a nice little easy project. One thing I would love to know is if there is a way to restrict input to certain characters (such as 1 and 0 for the binary inputs and A and B for the add or subtract inputs). I could always replace all characters that aren't these with empty strings to get rid of them, but doing something like this is quite tedious.
Here is some simple code to filter out the specified characters from a user's input:
local filter = "10abAB"
local input = io.read()
input = input:gsub("[^" .. filter .. "]", "")
The filter variable is just set to whatever characters you want to be allowed in the user's input. As an example, if you want to allow c, add c: local filter = "10abcABC".
Although I assume that you get input from io.read(), it is possible that you get it from somewhere else, so you can just replace io.read() with whatever you need there.
The third line of code in my example is what actually filters out the text. It uses string:gsub to do this, meaning that it could also be written like this:
input = string.gsub(input, "[^" .. filter .. "]", "").
The benefit of writing it like this is that it's clear that input is meant to be a string.
The gsub pattern is [^10abAB], which means that any characters that aren't part of that pattern will be filtered out, due to the ^ before them and the replacement pattern, which is the empty string that is the last argument in the method call.
Bonus super-short one-liner that you probably shouldn't use:
local input = io.read():gsub("[^10abAB]", "")

Fortran read statement reading beyond an end of line

do you know if the following statement is guaranteed to be true by one of the fortran 90/95/2003 standards?
"Suppose a read statement for a character variable is given a blank line (i.e., containing only white spaces and new line characters). If the format specifier is an asterisk (*), it continues to read the subsequent lines until a non-blank line is found. If the format specifier is '(A)', a blank string is substituted to the character variable."
For example, please look at the following minimal program and input file.
program code:
PROGRAM chk_read
INTEGER, PARAMETER :: MAXLEN=30
CHARACTER(len=MAXLEN) :: str1, str2
str1='minomonta'
read(*,*) str1
write(*,'(3A)') 'str1_start|', str1, '|str1_end'
str2='minomonta'
read(*,'(A)') str2
write(*,'(3A)') 'str2_start|', str2, '|str2_end'
END PROGRAM chk_read
input file:
----'input.dat' content is below this line----
yamanakako
kawaguchiko
----'input.dat' content is above this line----
Please note that there are four lines in 'input.dat' and the first and third lines are blank (contain only white spaces and new line characters). If I run the program as
$ ../chk_read < input.dat > output.dat
I get the following output
----'output.dat' content is below this line----
str1_start|yamanakako |str1_end
str2_start| |str2_end
----'output.dat' content is above this line----
The first read statement for the variable 'str1' seems to look at the first line of 'input.dat', find a blank line, move on to the second line, find the character value 'yamanakako', and store it in 'str1'.
In contrast, the second read statement for the variable 'str2' seems to be given the third line, which is blank, and store the blank line in 'str2', without moving on to the fourth line.
I tried compiling the program by Intel Fortran (ifort 12.0.4) and GNU Fortran (gfortran 4.5.0) and got the same result.
A little bit about a background of asking this question: I am writing a subroutine to read a data file that uses a blank line as a separator of data blocks. I want to make sure that the blank line, and only the blank line, is thrown away while reading the data. I also need to make it standard conforming and portable.
Thanks for your help.
From Fortran 2008 standard draft:
List-directed input/output allows data editing according to the type
of the list item instead of by a format specification. It also allows
data to be free-field, that is, separated by commas (or semicolons) or
blanks.
Then:
The characters in one or more list-directed records constitute a
sequence of values and value separators. The end of a record has the
same effect as a blank character, unless it is within a character
constant. Any sequence of two or more consecutive blanks is treated as
a single blank, unless it is within a character constant.
This implicitly states that in list-directed input, blank lines are treated as blanks until the next non-blank value.
When using a fmt='(A)' format descriptor when reading, blank lines are read into str. On the other side, fmt=*, which implies list-directed I/O in free-form, skips blank lines until it finds a non-blank character string. To test this, do something like:
PROGRAM chk_read
INTEGER :: cnt
INTEGER, PARAMETER :: MAXLEN=30
CHARACTER(len=MAXLEN) :: str
cnt=1
do
read(*,fmt='(A)',end=100)str
write(*,'(I1,3A)')cnt,' str_start|', str, '|str_end'
cnt=cnt+1
enddo
100 continue
END PROGRAM chk_read
$ cat input.dat
yamanakako
kawaguchiko
EOF
Running the program gives this output:
$ a.out < input.dat
1 str_start| |str_end
2 str_start| |str_end
3 str_start| |str_end
4 str_start|yamanakako |str_end
5 str_start| |str_end
6 str_start|kawaguchiko |str_end
On the other hand, if you use default input:
read(*,fmt=*,end=100)str
You end up with this output:
$ a.out < input.dat
1 str1_start|yamanakako |str1_end
2 str2_start|kawaguchiko |str2_end
This Part of the F2008 standard draft probably treats your problem:
10.10.3 List-directed input
7 When the next effective item is of type character, the input form
consists of a possibly delimited sequence of zero or more
rep-char s whose kind type parameter is implied by the kind of the
effective item. Character sequences may be continued from the end of
one record to the beginning of the next record, but the end of record
shall not occur between a doubled apostrophe in an
apostrophe-delimited character sequence, nor between a doubled quote
in a quote-delimited character sequence. The end of the record does
not cause a blank or any other character to become part of the
character sequence. The character sequence may be continued on as many
records as needed. The characters blank, comma, semicolon, and slash
may appear in default, ASCII, or ISO 10646 character sequences.

Delimiting User Input

What is the best character to use to delimit user input?
For example if a user has an infinite number of textboxes to type things into, but each textbox's value will be concatenated into a single database field, what is the safest character to delimit each input?
I think it should be a character not on your typical keyboard. Is there a character out there just for this?
You could use one of the ASCII control characters. There's one called "Record Separator" which has a hex value of 0x1E that might fit your needs.
Edit: Incidentally, if you want to do a proper job, you should probably ensure that \x1E is escaped in user input. One way to do this would be to use another ASCII control character: \x1B which is the "escape" control code. Thus, "\x1E" in input becomes "\x1B\x1E" and "\x1B" becomes "\x1B\x1B".
Keep in mind, of course, that because these are non-printing control codes, they can't be displayed. If you want a printable representation, you might want to go with a normal character like the comma and just escape it from input.
I guess one approach is to use a comma, and then to escape commas within the user input. It's probably not safe to assume any character (or even a sequence of characters) can't appear in user input -- if you can enter it in your code, then there's a way the user can enter it into a text box!
Normally commas or semi-colons are used for splitting data. What about | which the average user never uses?
How about a combination of keys? e.g.
|::|
so
this|::|and|::|that. Plus Those:Here and there.|::|Even this|that works
Any markup language will do for this. They're a little verbose but at least they'll be future proofing your field.
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ftw