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C# C# Basics (Retired) Perfect Final

Christian Lawrence
Christian Lawrence
3,941 Points
Posted by Christian Lawrence
Christian Lawrence
3,941 Points

C# While yay <= 5

I can't seem to get the console to write out "Yay" five times. It's as if the while is only printing out once

' Bummer! I entered 5, but saw Yay! printed 1 time.'

using System;

namespace Treehouse.CodeChallenges
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main()
        {
            Console.Write("Enter the number of times to print \"Yay!\": ");
            var entry = Console.ReadLine();
            int numTimes = Int32.Parse(entry);

            while(numTimes <= 5)
            {
              Console.Write("Yay " + numTimes);
              numTimes++;
            }
        }
    }
}

2 Answers

Gavin Ralston
Gavin Ralston
28,770 Points
Gavin Ralston
Gavin Ralston
28,770 Points 
int numTimes = Int32.Parse(entry);

while(numTimes <= 5)
{
    Console.Write("Yay " + numTimes);
    numTimes++;
}

So you parse the entry "5" and store it in numTimes...

Then you say "while numTimes is less than or equal to 5" which is is (once! it's already 5), then print "Yay" and the number of times. If you entered 6 or higher, it wouldn't print anything at all.

So you enter 5, it's less than or equal to 5, you print, then increment it to 6, which will end the loop.

Try reducing numTimes in your loop, count down to 0, for instance.

while(numTimes > 0) {
     // do your thing here
     numtimes--;
}

Or set a sentinel value like "timesPrinted" to 0, and then 

while(timesPrinted < numTimes) { 
    //do your thing
    //increment the number of times printed
}

Then it'll run the loop til the number of times you printed the statement matches the number of times they want to say "Yay" :)

Christian Lawrence
Christian Lawrence
3,941 Points
Christian Lawrence
Christian Lawrence
3,941 Points

Cheers Gavin,

I got it to work, think I was getting mixed with a for loop.

Gavin Ralston
Gavin Ralston
28,770 Points
Gavin Ralston
Gavin Ralston
28,770 Points

It happens.

Like, for me, all the time. :)

Albert Tomasura
Albert Tomasura
11,041 Points
Albert Tomasura
Albert Tomasura
11,041 Points

I love how Python can produce the same results with two lines of code. It's no problem to multiply a string by an int, no conversions necessary

Gavin Ralston
Gavin Ralston
28,770 Points
Gavin Ralston
Gavin Ralston
28,770 Points

Python's fun like that. :)

That being said...

def cheer(num):
    print("Yay!\n" * num)

Has a bit of trouble with the following:

cheer(-1)
cheer("banana")

Never mind that it would also require someone to have Python installed in order to import and run it in the interactive shell, or you'd need to add a few lines after if name == "main", and then more lines to unpack args

The C# examples above are, of course, almost as naive, and don't do much more about invalid input, but I think it's safe to say that no matter how dead simple the syntax seems at first, you'll find almost all languages wind up requiring you to expend a few more lines than you thought. :)