Loop won't stop repeating when I want it to?

Question

This code should ask the user for an input and if they do not enter one of five strings then it should keep asking until they do. However when I added the while loop to accomplish this it does not recognize the valid inputs, it still keeps looping the input

def main():
    print('----- AVATAR -----')

    avatar = input('Select an Avatar or create your own:\n')
    #if input is not one of these V then it should keep asking
    #if input is one of these, go to if statements
    while (avatar != 'exit' or avatar != 'Jeff' or 'custom' or 'Chris' or 'Adam'):
        avatar = input('Select an Avatar or create your own:\n')

    if avatar == 'exit':
        return avatar
    elif avatar == 'Jeff':
        hat('both')
        face("True", "0")
        arm_style("=")
        torso_length(2)
        leg_length(2)
        shoe_style("#HHH#")
    elif avatar == 'Adam':
.....

And then there are elif statements for all 5 valid inputs

You need to keep defining your while statement to check variables explicitly. — Kevin Mansel, Oct 09 '19 at 00:17

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 09 '19 at 00:21

0

It might be because in your while clause you stop checking if 'avatar !=' and just have 'or 'custom'', and 'or 'Chris'' etc.

This is equivalent to saying 'or a string'. A non-empty string by itself in a boolean check evaluates to 'true'. So, your while loop has constant 'true' values due to you not checking the string equals something, just that a string is.

edited Oct 09 '19 at 00:21

John Kugelman

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answered Oct 09 '19 at 00:20

DMarczak

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C. Fennell · Answer 2 · 2019-10-09T00:24:21.223

-1

The code for your loop is incorrect. It needs to be the following:

while (avatar != 'exit' and avatar != 'Jeff' and avatar !='custom' and avatar !='Chris' and avatar !='Adam'):

edited Oct 09 '19 at 00:24

answered Oct 09 '19 at 00:17

C. Fennell

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The `or`s need to be `and`s. – John Kugelman Oct 09 '19 at 00:22

Loop won't stop repeating when I want it to?

2 Answers2