Python Function That Returns "Hello" + Input + "!" Except For Two Specific Cases

Question

I'm trying to create a Python function that returns a polite greeting for everyone except for Lewis and Clark. Here is what I tried:

def politeGreeting(name):
    #if the user's name is Lewis or Clark, say "Oh, it's you." 
    if name == "Lewis" or "Clark":
        return("Oh, it's you")
    #if the user's name is anything else
    else:
        return("Hello," + name + "!")

name = input("please enter your name")        
print (politeGreeting(name))

Right now, this is printing Oh, it's you for everyone, not just for Lewis and Clark. I don't understand why - my IDE isn't returning any error messages. Please help if you can, thank you.

You must restate the condition for every condition! `if name == "Lewis" or name == "Clark":` — Andrew Li, Dec 20 '16 at 00:58

Sash Sinha · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-01T07:32:22.273

This should fix your problem of not restating the condition == for each comparison. Lewis or Clark:

def politeGreeting(name):
  #if the user's name is Lewis or Clark, say "Oh, it's you." 
  if name == "Lewis" or name == "Clark":
    return("Oh, it's you")
  #if the user's name is anything else
  else:
    return("Hello, " + name + "!")

name = input("Please enter your name:")        
print(politeGreeting(name))

However if you want to allow for different capitalizations of input try something like this which uses str.lower() and str.title():

def politeGreeting(name):
  #if the user's name is Lewis or Clark, say "Oh, it's you." 
  if name.lower() in {"lewis", "clark"}: # Use set for O(1) lookup time
    return("Oh, it's you " + name.title())
  #if the user's name is anything else
  else:
    return("Hello, " + name.title() + "!")

name = input("Please enter your name:")        
print(politeGreeting(name))

You should describe what the problem is in the original code as well as providing the solution — Ryan Haining, Dec 20 '16 at 01:12
@shash678 Made sense after realizing I needed to restate the condition. Also good to know how to answer for different capitalization cases. Thanks for the link to repl.it - really cool compiler / IDE! — Chameleon, Dec 20 '16 at 01:47

Andrew Guy · Answer 2 · 2016-12-20T01:04:37.873

The expression name == "Lewis" or "Clarke" will always evaluate to True. Use name in ("Lewis", "Clarke") instead.

def politeGreeting(name):
    #if the user's name is Lewis or Clark, say "Oh, it's you." 
    if name in ("Lewis", "Clark"):
        return("Oh, it's you")
    #if the user's name is anything else
    else:
        return("Hello," + name + "!")

    name = input("please enter your name")        
    print (politeGreeting(name))

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 20 '16 at 01:02

def politeGreeting(name):
    #if the user's name is Lewis or Clark, say "Oh, it's you." 
    if if name == "Lewis" or name == "Clark":
        return("Oh, it's you")
    #if the user's name is anything else
    else:
        return("Hello," + name + "!")

name = input("please enter your name")        
print (politeGreeting(name))

Python Function That Returns "Hello" + Input + "!" Except For Two Specific Cases

3 Answers3