Why does this loop have only one iteration instead of the number of iterations entered by the user?

Question

I am trying to ask the user to enter any number and then ask the user to enter any names, then store this input in a list.

However, when I enter any number, it asks to enter name only one time and shows the output in list:

def main():
    # a = 4
    a = input("Enter number of players: ")
    tmplist = []
    i = 1
    for i in a:
        pl = input("Enter name: " )
        tmplist.append(pl)
        
    print(tmplist)

if __name__== "__main__": 
    main()

output:

Enter number of players: 5
Enter name: Tess
['Tess']

The for loop should run 5 times and user entered 5 values get stored in a list.

[This](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20449427/how-can-i-read-inputs-as-integers-in-python) would be a better duplicate in terms of popularity and detail, but neither one addresses the lack of `range`. — TigerhawkT3, Oct 19 '15 at 05:59

Anand S Kumar · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-19T05:42:25.990

6

You need to convert the number of players to integer and then loop for that much amount of times, you can use the range() function for this . Example -

def main():
    num=int(input("Enter number of players: "))
    tmplist=[]
    for _ in range(num):
        pl=input("Enter name: " )
        tmplist.append(pl)

    print(tmplist)

edited Oct 19 '15 at 05:42

answered Oct 19 '15 at 05:36

Anand S Kumar

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Thanks, it worked. Can you tell me why range is used here? – PRK Oct 19 '15 at 05:49
@PrafullaKamble - You really should review your textbook or other course materials (or, if you're not in a class, the [official Python tutorial](https://docs.python.org/3.4/tutorial/index.html)). Your code shows that you're missing several fundamental concepts. – TigerhawkT3 Oct 19 '15 at 05:52
thanks. Rather than using append - is there any other way to add values to a list? – Nidhin_toms Dec 16 '18 at 19:43

John La Rooy · Answer 2 · 2015-10-19T05:42:26.790

Since you are using Python3

a=input("Enter number of players: ")

means a is a string "5". Since this is only one character long - the loop will run just once

You need to use

a = int(input("Enter number of players: "))

You'll also need to change the loop

for i in range(a):

I recommend using more meaningful variable names - especially if this is homework

def main():
    number_of_players = int(input("Enter number of players: "))
    player_list = []

    for i in range(number_of_players):
        player = input("Enter name: " )
        player_list.append(player)

    print(player_listlist)

if __name__== "__main__": 
    main()

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 19 '15 at 05:43

3

Since the input a is a string you need to convert it to a number and then use a different for.

it should be

def main():
    #a=4
    a=int(input("Enter number of players: "))
    tmplist=[]
    i=0
    while i < a:
        pl=input("Enter name: ")
        tmplist.append(pl)
        i+=1
    print(tmplist)

main()

edited Oct 19 '15 at 05:43

The6thSense

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answered Oct 19 '15 at 05:35

Srgrn

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OP is using Python 3, so please replace `raw_input("Enter name: ")` with `input('Enter name: ')`. – Remi Guan Oct 19 '15 at 05:40
@Srgrn tried this one but it goes into infinite loop. – PRK Oct 19 '15 at 05:53
I tested it on python 2 so maybe i missed something, I see you were helped anyway. – Srgrn Oct 19 '15 at 07:11

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 19 '15 at 05:36

You got a string a which presumably contained something like '5'. Then you initialize a counter i. Then you loop through this string, which, since it's '5', resulted in one iteration, because there's only one character in '5'.

First you have to change it into a number, with a = int(a).

With a as a number, you still can't loop through that, because a number isn't an iterable.

So then you should create a range object to loop over, with for i in range(a):.

Then you will be able to carry out your operations as expected.

Why does this loop have only one iteration instead of the number of iterations entered by the user?

4 Answers4