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Python Python Basics (2015) Letter Game App Even or Odd Loop

Joey B
Joey B
5,275 Points
Posted by Joey B
Joey B
5,275 Points

Why doesn't checking if start is True work for my while loop?

I originally wrote something like this:

import random

start = 5

def even_odd(num):
    # If % 2 is 0, the number is even.
    # Since 0 is falsey, we have to invert it with not.
    return not num % 2

while start == True:
    num = random.randint(1, 99)
    if even_odd(num) == True:
        print("{} is even".format(num))
    else:
        print("{} is odd".format(num))
    start -= 1

Then eventually got it working with

while start > 0:

I'd like to ask why comparing start to True didn't work. I thought that when start would decrement to zero, it would terminate the loop.

Jeremy Hill
Jeremy Hill
29,567 Points

if I remember correctly True in binary equates to 1 and False equates to 0. That might be why it works like that.

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

Regardless of how it may by represented, True is a Boolean, a different kind of thing than a numeric value. Normally, you want to avoid comparing things of different types without some kind of conversion.

So, to do a proper value comparison you could do this:

while start > 0:

But Python has this concept known as "truthiness" (or "falsiness"), which means you can test numeric values for non-zero directly. So you can replace that line with this:

while start:

This is the same way you would test if start actuallly was a Boolean. You never need to compare a Boolean against "True".

Happy coding!   -sp:sparkles:

Joey B
Joey B
5,275 Points
Joey B
Joey B
5,275 Points

My bad, I had a typo on my post. The code I got it working with was:

while start > 0:

I've corrected my original post.

Thanks so much for the answer! When I run my original code (while start == True:) in workspaces, nothing happens -- no errors or anything. Is it just because I'm trying to compare two different types?

I'm also still trying to wrap my head around "truthiness". Does that mean that a simple while x: or if x: loop by default, checks if that variable is truthy? By the end, my code looked something like this:

while start:
    num = random.randint(1, 99)
    if even_odd(num):
        print("{} is even".format(num))
    else:
        print("{} is odd".format(num))
    start -= 1