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Issues with recursive functions when function is called the second time around

I'm trying to create a function that is similar to a shopping list where the function asks the users for 2 inputs, the first one being of the item and the second one being the number of said item the user wants, the only caveat being that the total number of items needs to be exactly 10.
def manualInput():
items = []
noitems = []
x = 1
while sum(noitems) != 10 and sum(noitems) < 10:
try:
i = str(input(f'Item {x}: '))
noi = int(input(f'No. of {i}: '))
items.append(i)
noitems.append(noi)
x = x+1
except ValueError:
print('Check inputs and try again')
items.clear()
noitems.clear()
manualInput()
if sum(noitems) > 10:
print('Number of items need to be exactly 10. Try again')
items.clear()
noitems.clear()
manualInput()
return items, noitems
Now this function works perfectly fine if the user does it perfectly the first time around. However if a ValueError is thrown or the sum of the number of items is greater than 10, the lists always return as empty lists despite the function asking the users for their inputs again.
For example if the user wants to type in Oranges and Apples and wants 6 and 4 of each respectively and manages to input all the information correctly, the first time around, the function returns (['Oranges', 'Apples'], [6, 4]) which is what I want.
In the event of an error however, lets say the user accidently inputs Oranges Apples 6 5 , the function does print out Number of items need to be exactly 10. Try again but when the user inputs all the information again, correctly this time, the function does stop but returns ([], []).
I've tried taking out the item.clear() and noitems.clear() commands but this just results in the function returning (['Oranges', 'Apples'], [6, 5])
So to sum it up I don't know why my lists aren't being appended the second time around when I call the function again in the event of an error. It was my understanding that when u call a function within a function it sort of acts like a loop where the function is run again from the top.

It seems you have not understood recursion and the advantage of it.
Your function creates everytime it gets called a new empty items and noitems list. That's why it is impossible to "remember" the last state.
You have to pass them as function arguments - so that the different rounds of calls can share the state of these two lists.
Second, the while loop is an imperative programming construct - recursion replaces the loop - or should replace it. So you have to get rid of it.
Third, naming in programming is one of the most critical and hardest thing.
noitems tells a reader: "there are no items" - but what you mean are 'Number of items" - call it num_items avoid misinterpretable names.
Fourth, programming is communication. Communication requires that you follow conventions of the peer group with/to which you communicate. Writing Python code means you address your code - besides to the machines especially - to the community of people writing Python code (and who have to maintain the machines and your code). - Be it your successor at work, your colleagues, or your instructor in the course. This means: Always follow the Python code conventions and guidelines (style guide https://peps.python.org/pep-0008/ - in other languages - usually the google style guide for that language).
The style guide says: You don't name in python in camelCase, but in snake_case.https://peps.python.org/pep-0008/
So call it manual_input() - not manualInput() (camelCase is JavaScript and Java convention).
def manual_nput(items = [], num_items = []):
if sum(num_items) == 10: # this is the recursion exit condition
return items, num_items # culminating in returning the result
elif sum(num_items) < 10: # these are the different cases
item = str(input(f'Item {len(items)}: '))
num_item = int(input(f'No. of {item}: '))
return manual_input(items + [item], num_items + [num_item])
# they usually end in a recursive call of the function
# with updated arguments
else: # the number of items is > 10
# in this case remove the last item and call the manual_input again
print('Number of items need to be exactly 10. Try again')
return manual_input(items[:-1], num_items[:-1])
# this [:-1] removes the last input and puts the state of
# items and num_items back to the beginning of the previous call

How to do this recursion method to print out every 3 letters from a string on a separate line?

I'm making a method that takes a string, and it outputs parts of the strings on separate line according to a window.
For example:
I want to output every 3 letters of my string on separate line.
Input : "Advantage"
Output:
Adv
ant
age
Input2: "23141515"
Output:
231
141
515
My code:
def print_method(input):
mywindow = 3
start_index = input[0]
if(start_index == input[len(input)-1]):
exit()
print(input[1:mywindow])
printmethod(input[mywindow:])
However I get a runtime error.... Can someone help?

I think this is what you're trying to get. Here's what I changed:
Renamed input to input_str. input is a keyword in Python, so it's not good to use for a variable name.
Added the missing _ in the recursive call to print_method
Print from 0:mywindow instead of 1:mywindow (which would skip the first character). When you start at 0, you can also just say :mywindow to get the same result.
Change the exit statement (was that sys.exit?) to be a return instead (probably what is wanted) and change the if condition to be to return once an empty string is given as the input. The last string printed might not be of length 3; if you want this, you could use instead if len(input_str) < 3: return
def print_method(input_str):
mywindow = 3
if not input_str: # or you could do if len(input_str) == 0
return
print(input_str[:mywindow])
print_method(input_str[mywindow:])

edit sry missed the title: if that is not a learning example for recursion you shouldn't use recursion cause it is less efficient and slices the list more often.
def chunked_print (string,window=3):
for i in range(0,len(string) // window + 1): print(string[i*window:(i+1)*window])
This will work if the window size doesn't divide the string length, but print an empty line if it does. You can modify that according to your needs

Python define and call function - method behavior changing upon processing user input

I defined a method, like so:
class MyDatastructure(object):
# init method here
def appending(self, elem):
self.data.append(elem)
if self.count >= self.size:
print "popping " + str(self.data[0])
print "inserting " + str(elem)
self.data.pop(0)
elif self.count < self.size:
self.count += 1
print "count after end of method " + str(self.count)
I tested it out, and it worked as supposed to.
Underneath this definition, I wanted to process some user input and use this method. However, it doesn't enter the if case anymore! Any idea why?
# in the same file
def process_input():
while True:
# getting user input
x = raw_input()
ds = MyDatastructure(x) # creating data structure of size, which was taken from user input, count initially 0
ds.appending(1)
ds.appending(2)
ds.appending(3)
# Still appending and NOT popping, even though the if in appending doesn't allow it!
# This functionality works if I test it without user input!

The problem is with this line:
x = raw_input()
Calling raw_input will return a string. If I type in the number 3, that means that the data structure will assign the string "3" to the size.
Attempting to compare a string to a number is considered undefined behavior, and will do weird things -- see this StackOverflow answer. Note that Python 3 fixes this piece of weirdness -- attempting to compare a string to an int will cause a TypeError exception to occur.
Instead, you want to convert it into an int so you can do your size comparison properly.
x = int(raw_input())

Python Min-Max Function - List as argument to return min and max element

Question: write a program which first defines functions minFromList(list) and maxFromList(list). Program should initialize an empty list and then prompt user for an integer and keep prompting for integers, adding each integer to the list, until the user enters a single period character. Program should than call minFromList and maxFromList with the list of integers as an argument and print the results returned by the function calls.
I can't figure out how to get the min and max returned from each function separately. And now I've added extra code so I'm totally lost. Anything helps! Thanks!
What I have so far:
def minFromList(list)
texts = []
while (text != -1):
texts.append(text)
high = max(texts)
return texts
def maxFromList(list)
texts []
while (text != -1):
texts.append(text)
low = min(texts)
return texts
text = raw_input("Enter an integer (period to end): ")
list = []
while text != '.':
textInt = int(text)
list.append(textInt)
text = raw_input("Enter an integer (period to end): ")
print "The lowest number entered was: " , minFromList(list)
print "The highest number entered was: " , maxFromList(list)

I think the part of the assignment that might have confused you was about initializing an empty list and where to do it. Your main body that collects data is good and does what it should. But you ended up doing too much with your max and min functions. Again a misleading part was that assignment is that it suggested you write a custom routine for these functions even though max() and min() exist in python and return exactly what you need.
Its another story if you are required to write your own max and min, and are not permitted to use the built in functions. At that point you would need to loop over each value in the list and track the biggest or smallest. Then return the final value.
Without directly giving you too much of the specific answer, here are some individual examples of the parts you may need...
# looping over the items in a list
value = 1
for item in aList:
if item == value:
print "value is 1!"
# basic function with arguments and a return value
def aFunc(start):
end = start + 1
return end
print aFunc(1)
# result: 2
# some useful comparison operators
print 1 > 2 # False
print 2 > 1 # True
That should hopefully be enough general information for you to piece together your custom min and max functions. While there are some more advanced and efficient ways to do min and max, I think to start out, a simple for loop over the list would be easiest.

Serial Key Generation and Validation

I'm toying around with writing creating a serial code generator/validator, but I can't seem to get how to do a proper check.
Here's my generator code:
# Serial generator
# Create sequences from which random.choice can choose
Sequence_A = 'ABCDEF'
Sequence_B = 'UVWQYZ'
Sequence_C = 'NOPQRS'
Sequence_D = 'MARTIN'
import random
# Generate a series of random numbers and Letters to later concatenate into a pass code
First = str(random.randint(1,5))
Second = str(random.choice(Sequence_A))
Third = str(random.randint(6,9))
Fourth = str(random.choice(Sequence_B))
Fifth = str(random.randint(0,2))
Sixth = str(random.choice(Sequence_C))
Seventh = str(random.randint(7,8))
Eighth = str(random.choice(Sequence_D))
Ninth = str(random.randint(3,5))
serial = First+Second+Third+Fourth+Fifth+Sixth+Seventh+Eighth+Ninth
print serial
I'd like to make a universal check so that my validation code will accept any key generated by this.
My intuition was to create checks like this:
serial_check = raw_input("Please enter your serial code: ")
# create a control object for while loop
control = True
# Break up user input into list that can be analyzed individually
serial_list = list(serial_check)
while control:
if serial_list[0] == range(1,5):
pass
elif serial_list[0] != range(1,5):
control = False
if serial_list[1] == random.choice('ABCDEF'):
pass
elif serial_list[1] != random.choice('ABCDEF'):
control = False
# and so on until the final, where, if valid, I would print that the key is valid.
if control == False:
print "Invalid Serial Code"
I'm well aware that the second type of check won't work at all, but it's a place holder because I've got no idea how to check that.
But I thought the method for checking numbers would work, but it doesn't either.

The expression `range(1, 5)' creates a list of numbers from 1 to 4. So in your first test, you're asking whether the first character in your serial number is equal to that list:
"1" == [1, 2, 3, 4]
Probably not...
What you probably want to know is whether a digit is in the range (i.e. from 1 to 5, I assume, not 1 to 4).
Your other hurdle is that the first character of the serial is a string, not an integer, so you would want to take the int() of the first character. But that will raise an exception if it's not a digit. So you must first test to make sure it's a digit:
if serial_list[0].isdigit() and int(serial_list[0]) in range(1, 6):
Don't worry, if it's not a digit, Python won't even try to evaluate the part after and. This is called short-circuiting.
However, I would not recommend doing it this way. Instead, simply check to make sure it is at least "1" and no more than "5", like this:
if "1" <= serial_list <= "5":
You can do the same thing with each of your tests, varying only what you're checking.
Also, you don't need to convert the serial number to a list. serial_check is a string and accessing strings by index is perfectly acceptable.
And finally, there's this pattern going on in your code:
if thing == other:
pass
elif thing != other:
(do something)
First, because the conditions you are testing are logical opposites, you don't need elif thing != other -- you can just say else, which means "whatever wasn't matched by any if condition."
if thing == other:
pass
else:
(do something)
But if you're just going to pass when the condition is met, why not just test the opposite condition to begin with? You clearly know how to write it 'cause you were putting it in the elif. Put it right in the if instead!
if thing != other:
(do something)
Yes, each of your if statements can easily be cut in half. In the example I gave you for checking the character range, probably the easiest way to do it is using not:
if not ("1" <= serial_list <= "5"):

Regarding your python, I'm guessing that when your wrote this:
if serial_list[0] == range(1,5):
You probably meant this:
if 1 <= serial_list[0] <= 5:
And when you wrote this:
if serial_list[1] == random.choice('ABCDEF'):
You probably meant this:
if serial_list[1] in 'ABCDEF':
There are various other problems with your code, but I'm sure you'll improve it as you learn python.
At a higher level, you seem to be trying to build something like a software activation code generator/validator. You should know that just generating a string of pseudo-random characters and later checking that each is in range is an extremely weak form of validation. If you want to prevent forgeries, I would suggest learning about HMAC (if you're validating on a secure server) or public key cryptography (if you're validating on a user's computer) and incorporating that into your design. There are libraries available for python that can handle either approach.