Finding smallest element of list

Question

I tried the following code, and the results are given below that. I know of other methods, but I'd like to know why this one fails.

l=list(input("Enter a list:"))

for a in l:
    for b in l:
        if a>=b:
            break
        else:
            print(a,l.index(a))

Result:

Enter a list:3,2,4,5
, 1
2 2
, 1
, 1

Every single character in your input including spaces and commas will be an item of the list if you cast it like that. — Klaus D., Jun 08 '20 at 16:40

score -1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 08 '20 at 16:53

-1

Replace first line with this:

l=eval("["+input("Enter a list:")+"]")

answered Jun 08 '20 at 16:53

Green05

1

Using `.split(',')` on your input is a **much** better solution than `eval()`. – Klaus D. Jun 09 '20 at 03:03
@Klaus Sure. Is that because eval might think it's not a list? – Green05 Jun 09 '20 at 03:54
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1832940/why-is-using-eval-a-bad-practice – Klaus D. Jun 09 '20 at 04:18

1 Answers1