Better way to print a grid without using a for loop in python

Question

I am doing exercise 3.3 from Think Python book which asks us to write a program without using for loops to print the following grids (using only the concepts introduced so far - string replication using * operator, simple functions and passing functions as arguments)

+ - - - -  + - - - -  +
|          |          |
|          |          |
|          |          |
|          |          |
+ - - - -  + - - - -  +
|          |          |
|          |          |
|          |          |
|          |          |
+ - - - -  + - - - -  +

def print_line(start_char, middle_char):
    print(start_char, middle_char * 4, end=" ")
    print(start_char, middle_char * 4, start_char)


def draw_grid():
    # print("+", "- " * 4, "+", "- " * 4, "+")
    print_line("+", "- ")
    # print("|", "  " * 4, "|", "  " * 4, "|")
    print_line("|", "  ")
    print_line("|", "  ")
    print_line("|", "  ")
    print_line("|", "  ")
    print_line("+", "- ")
    print_line("|", "  ")
    print_line("|", "  ")
    print_line("|", "  ")
    print_line("|", "  ")
    print_line("+", "- ")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    draw_grid()

Here are questions I have:

Is there a better way of doing this in python. I am new to python and would like to use this simple program to deepen python constructs
In print_line function, I wanted to repeat the printing of "+ - - - -" twice. Hence, I wanted to see whether I can replicate the combined string. But when I used brackets around like print((start_char, middle_char * 4)*2), it ended up printing brackets. Is there a way to achieve this

Your grid has an extra space before the second +. Perhaps use end="" instead. — Mateen Ulhaq
– Mateen Ulhaq, Commented Feb 26, 2020 at 4:37

Shadow · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-26 04:44:19Z

3

print((start_char, middle_char * 4)*2)

This creates a tuple containing two elements.

I think what you may have meant to do was this;

print((start_char + middle_char * 4)*2)
#                 ^ This concats the strings, instead of making a tuple.

I think that should be enough to get you back onto the right path.

answered Feb 26, 2020 at 4:44

Shadow

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1 Comment

Shadow Over a year ago

Glad to hear it :) Feel free to mark this as answered if it helped you on your way.

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