I'm very new to Python, so forgive my newbish question. I have the following code:
[a while loop starts]
print 'Input the first data as 10 characters from a-f'
input1 = raw_input()
if not re.match("^[a-f]*$", input1):
print "The only valid inputs are 10-character strings containing letters a-f"
break
else:
[the rest of the script]
If I wanted to, instead of breaking the loop and quitting the program, send the user back to the original prompt until they input valid data, what would I write instead of break?
To go on with the next loop iteration, you can use the continue
statement.
I'd usually factor out the input to a dedicated function:
def get_input(prompt):
while True:
s = raw_input(prompt)
if len(s) == 10 and set(s).issubset("abcdef"):
return s
print("The only valid inputs are 10-character "
"strings containing letters a-f.")
print "Input initial data. Must be 10 characters, each being a-f."
input = raw_input()
while len(input) != 10 or not set(input).issubset('abcdef'):
print("Must enter 10 characters, each being a-f."
input = raw_input()
Slight alternative:
input = ''
while len(input) != 10 or not set(input).issubset('abcdef'):
print("Input initial data. Must enter 10 characters, each being a-f."
input = raw_input()
Or, if you wanted to break it out in to a function (this function is overkill for this use, but an entire function for a special case is suboptimal imo):
def prompt_for_input(prompt, validate_input=None, reprompt_on_fail=False, max_reprompts=0):
passed = False
reprompt_count = 0
while not (passed):
print prompt
input = raw_input()
if reprompt_on_fail:
if max_reprompts == 0 or max_reprompts <= reprompt_count:
passed = validate_input(input)
else:
passed = True
else:
passed = True
reprompt_count += 1
return input
This method lets you define your validator. You would call it thusly:
def validator(input):
return len(input) == 10 and set(input).subset('abcdef')
input_data = prompt_for_input('Please input initial data. Must enter 10 characters, each being a-f.', validator, True)