Summary: In this laboratory, you continue the journey of learning to write

computer programs in the Python programming language.

Exercise 1: Making Decisions

So far, all the programs we have written work by executing each statement in
the program in order, from top to bottom. To write programs that solve more
complex problems, we need mechanisms that will allow statements to be
executed in more complex ways. For example, we might like to execute some
statements under some conditions but not others, or we might like to execute
some statements multiple times. These require our algorithmic ingredients
of conditionals and repetition.
In this exercise, we will explore programs that determine which statements
should be executed based on the values of variables.
a. Please copy the following program into a file called sign.py and run it a few
times, entering different numbers each time. You should find that if you enter a
positive number, a message is printed to that regard, but if you enter a
negative number or zero, no message prints.
number = input("Enter a number: ")
if number > 0:
print "That number is positive."

Note that the indentation of the print statement should be made by pressing
the TAB key once.
Now add a second print statement (with any message you want) at the end of
the program, being careful to indent it by the same amount the first print
statement is indented. How does this affect the output of your program when
you enter various values?
Now try removing the indentation from the second print statement. (In other
words, leave the first print statement where it is, but move the second back to
be aligned with if at the beginning of the line.) How does this affect the
program's output?
If all went well, you should have discovered that when python encounters
an if statement it checks whether the associated condition (in this
case, number > 0) is true. If it is, python executes all statements that

immediately follow the if clause and are indented beneath it. If the condition
is false, these statements are skipped. In either case, execution will then
continue with the next un-indented statement.
b. The example above uses one relational operator (greater than), but Python
has several more as shown below.
Operator
<
<=
>
>=
==
!=

In English
less than
less than or equal to
greater than
greater than or equal to
equal to
equal not to

Notice in particular that to ask whether one value "equals" another value, you
must use two equals signs, not one. For example, we could say:
number = input("Enter a number: ")
if number == 0:
print "You entered 0."

The if statement and relational operators work for comparing strings just like
they do for comparing numbers.
Next, write a program called favorite.py that asks the user to enter a color
name. If the color entered happens to be your favorite color, print a message
to that effect. Otherwise, do not print any response. (Be very careful with
punctuation in this program. The if clause must end with a colon, or Python
will complain.)
Notice that to check whether your program works correctly, you will now have
to run it at least twice, entering colors that test both outcomes.
Now add one statement to your program that will cause it to print "Goodbye!"
just before it ends, regardless of the color entered.
c. Let's return to the program sign.py. Suppose we want to print one message
when the test condition (number > 0) is true, and a different message when the
test condition is false. We can do that by adding an else clause as shown
below. Please modify your copy of sign.py in this way, and do some

experiments to convince yourself that it works. (Again, you must be careful to

include the colon after else.)
number = input("Enter a number: ")
if number > 0:
print "That number is positive."
else:
print "Definitely NOT positive."
print "This message prints every time."

d. Now return to favorite.py and modify your program so that it prints one
message if the user enters your favorite color, and a different message if not.
In addition, your program should print a final message for every user,
regardless of what they entered.

Exercise 2: Repetition
Another way to modify the control flow of a program is to have it execute one
or more statements repeatedly.
a. Please copy the following program into a file called loops.py, and then run it
to see what it does.
count = 1
while count <= 5:
print "Grinnell"
print "College"
count = count + 1
print "Done"

How many times are "Grinnell" and "College" printed? How many times is
"Done" printed?
Now let's walk through the program to understand how it works. On the first
line we create a variable named count and set it equal to one. The next
statement contains a test condition ( count <= 5 ). This condition will be
evaluated, and if it is true, the statements indented beneath it will be
executed. Once that has happened, execution returns to the top of the while
loop, where the condition is checked again. This process will continue, with
the indented statements being executed repeatedly as long as (i.e., while) the
condition continues to be true. If the condition is ever false when it gets
checked, execution will jump to the first statement after those associated with
the loop (the first un-indented statement).

The careful reader will notice that it is important for something about the
condition to change on each pass through the loop. What will happen if you
remove the statement "count = count + 1"? Remove the statement to verify
your prediction.
If all went "well", you should have discovered what programmers call
an infinite loop. This means your program will continue running forever, unless
you stop it from outside. You can do this by typing Control-c in the terminal
window where the program is running. (Go ahead and stop the program now.)
Modify the program loops.py so that it prints some word or phrase nine times,
and also prints a line number at the beginning of each line. For example, your
output might look like the following:
1 Python
2 Python
3 Python
4 Python
5 Python
6 Python
7 Python
8 Python
9 Python
IS FUN!

b. Write a program called squares.py that prints a list of the first nine positive
integers and their squares. (Once again, be careful to include the colon at the
end of thewhile statement, or Python will complain.) Your output should look
similar to the following:
Number Square
1
1
2
4
3
9
4
16
5
25
6
36
7
49
8
64
9
81

c. Write a program called blastoff.py that counts from 10 down to 1, and then
prints "Blastoff!" Your output should look like this:
10
9
8
7
6

5
4
3
2
1
Blastoff!

d. Write a program that asks the user to enter three numbers: a starting value,
an ending value, and an increment. Your program should then "count" based
on these criteria, as shown in the example below.
This program counts for you.
Enter the starting value: 3
Enter the ending value: 13
Enter the increment: 2
3
5
7
9
11
13

Exercise 3: Combining Decisions with

Repetition
We can place any valid Python statement inside either a while loop or
an if statement. Among other things, this means that we can place loops
within loops, or conditionals within conditionals. Similarly, we can place
conditionals within loops, and vice-versa. This flexibility allows us to solve
many complex problems.
In this exercise, we will solve problems that require us to make a given
decision multiple times. We can do this by placing an if statement within a
loop.
a. Write a program that uses a while loop to print the output shown below. As
you can see, the program should print the numbers 1 through 10, except that
between 7 and 8 it should print the word "happy". This can be accomplished
by placing an if statement within the while loop to do something special for
the lineNumber == 7case.
1
2
3
4
5

6
7
happy
8
9
10

Exercise 4: Nested Loops

As mentioned above, we can have one loop inside the body of another loop.
The following Python program prints a (not very pretty) "multiplication table" to
the terminal window.
import sys
numOne=1
while numOne<10:
numTwo=1
while numTwo<10:
product = numOne*numTwo
sys.stdout.write( str(product) + " " )
numTwo=numTwo + 1
numOne=numOne + 1
print

You can copy this program to your directory with the following command in the
terminal window:
cp ~weinman/courses/CSC105/labs/times.py ./

Note that because the Python print procedure tries to do too much for us with
respect to putting output on new lines and adding spaces after we print, we
have switched to using a write procedure, which only prints exactly what we
ask it to print. As a result, only the product number and a space get printed,
while the very lastprint line within the first loop moves the subsequent output
to the next line.
In order to add that functionality to our program, we had to start it with the
command import sys.
Try to make a few other observations about how this works by answering the
following quetions.
a. Why is numTwo reset to 1 at the beginning of the "outer" (top-most) loop?
b. What would happen if this line was removed from the program?

c. Test your prediction by "commenting" out the line. Commenting a line

means that the interpreter ignores it, not trying to run it as program
code. You can do this by adding a # to the beginning of the line.)
d. Why is numTwo incremented in the body of the "inner" loop?
e. What would happen if this line was moved to the "outer" loop (e.g., by
removing one of the tabs from its indentation)?
f. Hopefully, you should see that since numTwo would never change, the
condition of the second while loop would always remain true, and we'd
have another infinite lop.
g. Why are there two different "count" variables for the nested loops? In
other words, why wouldn't the following work?
h. ...
i. while count<10
j.
...
k.
while count<10
l.
...
m.
count=count+1
n.
...
o.
count=count+1

The answer to the last question is that there is only one count variable
for both loops. Any time count is modified in the inner loop, the value is also
modified for the outer loop, and vice-versa. Thus, this code does not have the
effect we want, which is to have two loops with two independent counters.
This principle will be important for the next lab, so make sure you understand
it clearly!

Exercise 5: For Those with Extra Time

a. Write a program that plays a familiar guessing game: first your program will
set some number to be the "correct answer", then your program will ask the
user to guess this answer until they get it right. For each guess your program
should give a hint based on whether the guess was too high or too low.
For example, a session with your program may look like the following:
Enter your guess: 46
Your guess is too low
Enter your guess: 97

Your guess is too high

Enter your guess: 62
Your guess is too low
Enter your guess: 88
Your guess is too high
Enter your guess: 82
CORRECT! You Win!

Hints:
1. Begin your program with a line similar to: answer = 82. In a real game we
would want to begin with a random number, but for today let's pick a
single number that will always be the correct answer.
2. This program will require a loop with some if-statements inside it.
3. Each time through the loop, you must accept a new guess from the
user. This can be done by adding an input statement as the last
statement within the loop.
4. How will you know when to stop looping? When the guess is your
answer.
b. Write a program that reads in three strings and prints them out in
alphabetical order. For example,
Enter a word: hello
Enter a word: goodbye
Enter a word: zebra
In alphabetical order: goodbye hello zebra

Hints:
1. String comparisons, such as word1 < word2, work by comparing the
ASCII values of the characters in the two strings. This means
that word1 will be considered "less than" word2 if it comes first
alphabetically. (Well almost. The ordering can be surprising if we
compare capital letters to lower-case letters because all ASCII codes for
capitals precede all codes for lower-case letters. I suggest you only
enter lower-case words when running your program.)
2. This problem only requires if-statements, but your condition will need to
be more complex than we have used before. A compound condition is

one that includes multiple parts. Here are two examples. You may find
that something similar will be useful in this program.
3. if number > 2 and number < 10:
**do something interesting here**
if word1 > word2 and word2 > word3:
**do something interesting here**