On Tue, 2011-02-08 at 21:52 -0800, Nanderson wrote:
> def num_digits(n):
> count = 0
> while n:
> count = count + 1
> n = n / 10
> return count
>
> This is a function that basically says how many digits are in a
> number. For example,
> >>>print num_digits(44)
> 2
> >>>print num_digits(7654)
> 4
>
> This function counts the number of decimal digits in a positive
> integer expressed in decimal format. I get this function ALMOST
> completely. The only thing I don't understand is why it eventually
> exits the loop, and goes off to the second branch. "while n" is
> confusing me. What I am thinking is that if someone puts "while n" the
> loop would be infinite. I get what is happening in the function, and I
> understand why this would work, but for some reason it's confusing me
> as to how it is exiting the loop after a certain number of times. Help
> is appreciated, thanks.
I've become a little annoyed by this thread. Here's a good function that
does what you want:
def num_digits(n):
"""Return number of digits in an iteger."""
count = 1
while n:
n = n // 10
count += 1
return count
--
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
