Python: Loop not exiting with "break"

Question

I have this while loop that is testing to make sure the user inputs either 1, 2, or 3. Once the user inputs 1, 2, or 3, the loop keeps going infinitely, i can't get out of it.

while True:
    try:
         filterselection = raw_input("Please select a filter (1, 2, or 3): ")
         if filterselection == "1" or filterselection == "2" or filterselection == "3":
              filterselection = int(filterselection)
              break

      else:
          print "Not a valid number try again!"
      except TypeError:
          print "Lol, that's not a number try again!"

instead of the multiple ors you can use the in operator and say if filterselection in ('1', '2', '3'): . for your health. — Ryan Haining
– Ryan Haining, Commented Jun 25, 2013 at 2:02
also, there's nowhere in here that a TypeError could occur. Unless you wanted to change the if to say if int(filter_selection) in range(1,4): — Ryan Haining
– Ryan Haining, Commented Jun 25, 2013 at 2:04

Andrew Clark · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-25 01:52:03Z

10

Don't mix tabs and spaces! Here is what I see when pasting your original code into an editor that displays whitespace characters:

enter image description here

The arrows are tabs and the dots are spaces, it is very important that you don't mix these because if you do the code that you see might not be what the Python interpreter sees.

answered Jun 25, 2013 at 1:52

Andrew Clark

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3 Comments

jfs Over a year ago

+1: here's a good reference: "You cannot safely mix tabs and spaces in Python."

Binka Over a year ago

What's the best way to make sure code is copied correctly from Geany into this site? Because when I copied and pasted, everything looked all weird on here.

Andrew Clark Over a year ago

@Binka My guess is that everything looked weird because there was a mix of tabs and spaces in your code, some sites or programs will display tabs with the same width as 8 spaces, other with a width of 4 spaces.

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