[Tutor] tabbed output
I am having a weird issue. I have a print statement that will give me
multiple outputs separated by a tab; however, sometimes there is a tab
between the output and sometimes there is not. It seems sort of sporadic.
My code is below and two sample outputs are below that (one that works how
I expect, and the other showing the issue (tab separation not occurring
between all pieces of the output) What is going on?
def CheckNames():
names = []
for loop in range(1,4):
while True:
name = raw_input('''Name #%s: ''' %(loop))
if name not in names:
names.append(name)
break
print '%s is already in the data. Try again.' %(name)
sorted_names = sorted(names)
for element in list(sorted_names):
print 'Hurray for %s!\t' %(element),
Sample Output1:
Name #1: mike
Name #2: bret
Name #3: adam
Hurray for adam!Hurray for bret! Hurray for mike!
Sample Output2(there is a tab between output 2 3, but not 1 2):
Name #1: abe
Name #2: alan
Name #3: adam
Hurray for abe! Hurray for adam! Hurray for alan!
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Re: [Tutor] tabbed output
On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 1:52 AM, Michael Lewis mjole...@gmail.com wrote:
I am having a weird issue. I have a print statement that will give me
multiple outputs separated by a tab; however, sometimes there is a tab
between the output and sometimes there is not. It seems sort of sporadic. My
code is below and two sample outputs are below that (one that works how I
expect, and the other showing the issue (tab separation not occurring
between all pieces of the output) What is going on?
def CheckNames():
names = []
for loop in range(1,4):
while True:
name = raw_input('''Name #%s: ''' %(loop))
if name not in names:
names.append(name)
break
print '%s is already in the data. Try again.' %(name)
sorted_names = sorted(names)
for element in list(sorted_names):
print 'Hurray for %s!\t' %(element),
Sample Output1:
Name #1: mike
Name #2: bret
Name #3: adam
Hurray for adam! Hurray for bret! Hurray for mike!
Sample Output2(there is a tab between output 2 3, but not 1 2):
Yes there is, and I'll show you by modifying your method just a little:
def CheckNames():
names = []
for loop in range(1,4):
while True:
name = raw_input('''Name #%s: ''' %(loop))
if name not in names:
names.append(name)
break
print '%s is already in the data. Try again.' %(name)
sorted_names = sorted(names)
lst = []
for element in list(sorted_names):
lst.append('Hurray for %s!\t' %(element))
return ''.join(lst)
The juicy bit is at the end. Instead of printing, we make a list,
append everything we were going to print to it, join it into one big
string, and return it. This way we can look at the string better. Now
for the demonstration:
CheckNames()
Name #1: abe
Name #2: alan
Name #3: adam
'Hurray for abe!\tHurray for adam!\tHurray for alan!\t'
print _ # btw, _ is short for last value in the interpreter
Hurray for abe! Hurray for adam!Hurray for alan!
You see that? in the string returned, there is most definitely a tab.
And in fact, that little space between abe and adam, that is also a
tab. You see, if you insert a tab, the cursor is moved up to the next
tab stop. Choosing a short name #1, like abe, means that the next tab
stop is right after the exclamation mark. If you use a slightly longer
name though, like adam, the exclamation mark will be past that tab
stop, and the tab character afterward will put name #2 all the way at
the next tabstop.
tab characters are lame like that. They are generally only used to
make sure output lines up at a tabstop, it's not a reliable way to put
a certain amount of space between two pieces of text.
HTH,
Hugo
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Re: [Tutor] tabbed output
On 2/12/12, Michael Lewis mjole...@gmail.com wrote:
I am having a weird issue. I have a print statement that will give me
multiple outputs separated by a tab; however, sometimes there is a tab
between the output and sometimes there is not. It seems sort of sporadic.
My code is below and two sample outputs are below that (one that works how
I expect, and the other showing the issue (tab separation not occurring
between all pieces of the output) What is going on?
def CheckNames():
names = []
for loop in range(1,4):
while True:
name = raw_input('''Name #%s: ''' %(loop))
if name not in names:
names.append(name)
break
print '%s is already in the data. Try again.' %(name)
sorted_names = sorted(names)
for element in list(sorted_names):
print 'Hurray for %s!\t' %(element),
Sample Output1:
Name #1: mike
Name #2: bret
Name #3: adam
Hurray for adam!Hurray for bret! Hurray for mike!
Sample Output2(there is a tab between output 2 3, but not 1 2):
Name #1: abe
Name #2: alan
Name #3: adam
Hurray for abe! Hurray for adam! Hurray for alan!
You should use spaces, not tabs. Tabs only align with tab stops, which will
depend on the length of the words (names). To make it easy to use spaces
instead, use the 'format()' method available on string objects. A one-line
modification of your could would look like this::
def CheckNames():
names = []
for loop in range(1,4):
while True:
name = raw_input('''Name #%s: ''' %(loop))
if name not in names:
names.append(name)
break
print '%s is already in the data. Try again.' %(name)
sorted_names = sorted(names)
for element in list(sorted_names):
print {value:30}.format(value=Hurray for %s! % element),
# The line above is all that was changed.
The result, is that 'value' will be output as left-aligned '', and a minimum
of 30 characters wide '30'. The 'value' is specified as a keyword argument to
the format() method. In the example above, 'value' is also making use of
python's older string formatting method. Using a monospaced font, your output
will always be lined up, as long as the 'value' string never exceeds 30
characters wide.
You can optionally *not* specify the 'value' variable and instead use a
positional argument to the format method like this, but it makes it less clear
what you're doing::
print {0:30}.format(Hurray for %s! % element),
As a final note, if 'CheckNames' is a function and not a method, it should be
all lowercase, or use_underscores rather than camelCase. This is not enforced
by python, but is kind of the de-facto standard.
Read more about the format method here:
http://docs.python.org/library/string.html#formatspec
http://docs.python.org/library/string.html#formatstrings
-Modulok-
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