Build an Arithmetic Formatter Project - Build an Arithmetic Formatter Project

Python
1

Tell us what’s happening:

I know my problem is that I am printing the final answer and not returning it. I just cannot seem to figure out the difference between print and return. Please help!

Your code so far

def arithmetic_arranger(problems, show_answers=False):

    line_1 = ''
    line_2 = ''
    line_3 = ''
    line_4 = ''

#Error Codes    
    if len(problems)>5: 
        return 'Error: Too many problems.'

    for problem in problems:
        num1, operator, num2 = problem.split()
                
        if (operator == '*') or (operator == '/') :
            return "Error: Operator must be '+' or '-'."

        if (len(num1)>4) or (len(num2)>4):
            return 'Error: Numbers cannot be more than four digits.'
        
        for char in problem: 
            if char.isalpha():
                return 'Error: Numbers must only contain digits.'

        num1_len = len(num1)
        num2_len = len(num2)
        long_num = max(num1_len, num2_len)
        num1_space = (long_num + 2) - num1_len
        num2_space = (long_num +1) - num2_len
        problem_spacing = ' '*4
        
        if operator == '+':
            answer = int(num1) + int(num2)
        elif operator == '-':
            answer = int(num1) - int(num2)
        
        answer_len = len(str(answer))
        answer_space = (long_num + 2) - answer_len
        
        line_1 += ' '*num1_space + num1 + ' '*4
        line1 = line_1
        line_2 += operator + ' '*num2_space + num2 + ' '*4
        line2 = line_2
        line_3 += '-'*(long_num + 2) + ' '*4 
        line3 = line_3
        line_4 += ' '*answer_space + str(answer) + ' '*4
        line4 = line_4

        if show_answers == True: 
            final_answer = f'{line_1}\n{line_2}\n{line_3}'
        else: 
            final_answer = f'{line_1}\n{line_2}\n{line_3}\n{line_4}'
    print(final_answer)

arithmetic_arranger(["3801 - 2", "123 + 49"])

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Challenge Information:

Build an Arithmetic Formatter Project - Build an Arithmetic Formatter Project

2

Hi and welcome to the forum :wave:

This is a return:

This is a print:

Your function should never have a print statement, only returns

To test your function you can call it within a print like this

print(arithmetic_arranger(["3801 - 2", "123 + 49"]))
3 
def arithmetic_arranger(problems, show_answers=False):

    line_1 = ''
    line_2 = ''
    line_3 = ''
    line_4 = ''

    if len(problems)>5: 
        return 'Error: Too many problems.'

    for problem in problems:
        num1, operator, num2 = problem.split()
                
        if (operator == '*') or (operator == '/') :
            return "Error: Operator must be '+' or '-'."

        if (len(num1)>4) or (len(num2)>4):
            return 'Error: Numbers cannot be more than four digits.'
        
        for char in problem: 
            if char.isalpha():
                return 'Error: Numbers must only contain digits.'

        num1_len = len(num1)
        num2_len = len(num2)
        long_num = max(num1_len, num2_len)
        num1_space = (long_num + 2) - num1_len
        num2_space = (long_num +1) - num2_len
        problem_spacing = ' '*4
        
        if operator == '+':
            answer = int(num1) + int(num2)
        elif operator == '-':
            answer = int(num1) - int(num2)
        
        answer_len = len(str(answer))
        answer_space = (long_num + 2) - answer_len
        
        line_1 += ' '*num1_space + num1 + ' '*4
        line1 = line_1
        line_2 += operator + ' '*num2_space + num2 + ' '*4
        line2 = line_2
        line_3 += '-'*(long_num + 2) + ' '*4 
        line3 = line_3
        line_4 += ' '*answer_space + str(answer) + ' '*4
        line4 = line_4

        if show_answers == True: 
            final_answer = f'{line_1}\n{line_2}\n{line_3}\n{line_4}'
        elif show_answers == False: 
            final_answer = f'{line_1}\n{line_2}\n{line_3}'
    return final_answer

arithmetic_arranger(["3801 - 2", "123 + 49"])

Alright this is what I have now, but it still isn’t passing any tests other than the error codes.

4

Great, you are almost there.

Use repr() to compare the raw string output of your function to the expected output:

print(repr(arithmetic_arranger(["3801 - 2", "123 + 49"])))

'  3801      123    \n-    2    +  49    \n------    -----    '

arithmetic_arranger(["3801 - 2", "123 + 49"]) should return 3801 123\n- 2 + 49\n------ -----

Compare them like this:

'  3801      123    \n-    2    +  49    \n------    -----    '
'  3801      123\n-    2    +  49\n------    -----'

You should have a newline immediately after 123 but you have some extra spaces at the end of each line.

5

Thank you so much! Those extra spaces almost made me go crazy…

1 Like
6

Also check this note:

Note: open the browser console with F12 to see a more verbose output of the tests.