Arithmetic_arranger - can't understand error codes

Curriculum Help
1

I am working on the Arithmetic Arranger problem and I don’t know what the errors I am getting actually mean or how to fix them. The core for loop works, but once I put into replit, I get weird errors that I can’t even understand.

import re

def arithmetic_arranger(problems, solve = False):
  
  if len(problems) > 5:
     return "Error: Too many problems."

  top = ""
  bottom = ""
  newDash = ""
  newSum = ""
  
  for problem in problems:
    
    if re.search("[*]", problem) or re.search("[/]", problem):
      return "Error: Operator must be '+' or '-'"
    if re.search("^/s[0-9].+-", problem):
      return "Error: Numbers must only contain digits"
    firstNumber = problem.split(' ')[0]
    operator = problem.split(' ')[1]
    secondNumber = problem.split(' ')[2]
    if len(firstNumber) >= 5 or len(secondNumber) >= 5:
      return "Error: Numbers cannot be more than four digits."
    
    sum =""
    if(operator == "+"):
        sum = str(int(firstNumber)+int(secondNumber))
    else:
        sum = str(int(firstNumber)-int(secondNumber))

    length = max(len(firstNumber), len(secondNumber)) +2
    topLine = str(firstNumber).rjust(length)
    bottomLine = operator + str(secondNumber).rjust(length-1)
    result = sum.rjust(length)
    dash = ""
    for y in range(length):
        dash += "-"

    if problem != problems[-1]:
      top += topLine + "    "
      bottom += bottomLine + "    "
      newDash += dash + "    "
      newSum += result + "    "
    else:
        top += topLine
        bottom += bottomLine
        newDash += dash
        newSum += result
  
  if solve:
    answer = (top + "\n" + bottom + "\n" + newDash + "\n" + newSum)
  else:
    answer = (top + "\n" + bottom + "\n" + newDash)
    
    return answer

User Agent is: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/102.0.5005.63 Safari/537.36

Challenge: Arithmetic Formatter

Link to the challenge:
https://www.freecodecamp.org/learn/scientific-computing-with-python/scientific-computing-with-python-projects/arithmetic-formatter

2

please share the tests output you get from the test suite

I’ve edited your post for readability. When you enter a code block into a forum post, please precede it with a separate line of three backticks and follow it with a separate line of three backticks to make it easier to read.

You can also use the “preformatted text” tool in the editor (</>) to add backticks around text.

Pre-formatted-text
Pre-formatted-text1356×380 401 KB

See this post to find the backtick on your keyboard.
Note: Backticks (`) are not single quotes (’).

3

Hey just finishes the first python cert, a couple months ago. Most of the error codes are because the test output != your output. That is, your solution isn’t equal to what the test file wants to you get. Try to look like by line for the keyword “!=” or “does not equal”… see what you are suppose to be getting and how you can fix your code.

I still vividly remember, going line by line with the test code to make sure spaces, etc matched up, for each case.

If you are working offline, you can also download/copy the test solutions, then enter them into your code and compare them one by one. That is what I would recommend, as I did all the code offline first.

4

Thanks for the advice! I actually figured it out but thank you!

5

Thanks, I forgot to add a period to the end of an error message and had to tweak my reg ex formatting and it works now!