Loop a function (including input) until a specific input is pressed

Question

I'm working on some homework and have been tasked with creating a simple program that:

Gets user input
Check that said input is in the correct form (two words with ',' separating)
Outputs the input as two separate words
And loops all of the above until 'q' is input

It has to come out exactly like asked, and I have it doing so at the moment. I just can't figure out how to loop the prompt back and get different input without it being an infinite loop or never actually taking the new input.

Here is what the output should look like once done:

Enter input string:
Jill, Allen
First word: Jill
Second word: Allen

Enter input string:
Golden , Monkey
First word: Golden
Second word: Monkey

Enter input string:
Washington,DC
First word: Washington
Second word: DC

Enter input string:
q

I can get it through the first entry and make it quit with 'q,' but can't get it to prompt the user again and get a different input.

Here is my code:

def strSplit(usrStr):
    while "," not in usrStr:
        print("Error: No comma in string.\n")
        usrStr = input("Enter input string:\n")
    else:
        strLst = usrStr.split(",")
        print("First word: %s" % strLst[0].strip())
        print("Second word: %s\n" % strLst[1].strip())


usrStr = input("Enter input string:\n")

while usrStr != 'q':
    strSplit(usrStr)
    break

Any help would be fantastic! Thank you.

iz_ · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-03 00:00:42Z

2

You're almost there. Try this:

while True:
    usrStr = input("Enter input string:\n")
    if usrStr == 'q':
        break

    if "," not in usrStr:
        print("Error: No comma in string.\n")
    else:
        strLst = usrStr.split(",")
        print("First word: %s" % strLst[0].strip())
        print("Second word: %s\n" % strLst[1].strip())

Of course, you could still use your strSplit function with some modifications:

def strSplit(usrStr):
    if "," not in usrStr:
        print("Error: No comma in string.\n")
    else:
        strLst = usrStr.split(",")
        print("First word: %s" % strLst[0].strip())
        print("Second word: %s\n" % strLst[1].strip())

while True:
    usrStr = input("Enter input string:\n")
    if usrStr == 'q':
        break

    strSplit(usrStr)

edited Dec 3, 2018 at 0:00

answered Dec 2, 2018 at 23:54

iz_

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8 Comments

Cameron McMains Over a year ago

Thank you so much! I was pulling my hair out over this haha. So when you did the first while loop, is that basically just asking the user to input something every tick (not sure if that's the right term), and then breaking that loop when q is hit?

Eb946207 Over a year ago

@CameronMcMains The correct term would be "every loop" or "every iteration", not "every tick". :)

iz_ Over a year ago

@CameronMcMains Yeah, that's essentially the gist of it. The important thing to remember in these kinds of problems is that you need an infinite loop somewhere in your program that is broken out of once a condition is satisfied.

Eb946207 Over a year ago

@Tomothy32 ..._or_ you could use while condition: thing(). For this example it would be while usrStr != 'q': #etc.. and removing the break. Infinite loops are not always needed, but I tend to use them a lot as well.

iz_ Over a year ago

@EthanK Have you tried it yet? while loop conditions are evaluated only after every iteration, meaning that the code within the while loop will still be executed once before the loop condition evaluates and breaks out of the loop. i.e. pastebin.com/4DsPSnKd

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