CODEWITHSUNDEEP
python
Yotam Kasznik
Yotam Kasznik

Reputation: 55

Having trouble formatting my decimals

I need my outputs to be in 3 decimals

def main():

    n = eval(input("Enter the number of random steps: "))
    t = eval(input("Enter the number of trials: "))

    pos = 0
    totalPosition = 0
    totalSum = 0
    L = list()

    import random
    A = [-1, 1]

    for x in range(t):
        pos = 0
        for y in range(n):
            step = random.choice(A)
            pos += step


        totalPosition += abs(pos)
        totalSum += pos**2

    pos1 = totalPosition/t
    totalSum /= t
    totalSum = totalSum**0.5


    print("The average distance from the starting point is a %.3f", % pos1)
    print("The RMS distance from the starting point is %.3f", % totalSum)

main()

I keep getting syntax errors whether I try to use both the '%' character and the {0:.3f} .format(pos1) method. Anybody know where I'm going wrong?

Thanks!

Upvotes: 2

Views: 247

Answers (4)

Grijesh Chauhan
Grijesh Chauhan

Reputation: 58271

You don't need , in print function just % is enough for example: 

print("The RMS distance from the starting point is %.3f", % totalSum)
                                                        ^ remove this ,

like: 

print("The RMS distance from the starting point is %.3f" % totalSum)

Upvotes: 2

Jon Clements
Jon Clements

Reputation: 142126

You're getting the print and formatting confused:

print("The average distance from the starting point is a %.3f" % pos1)

You should really prefer the new style formatting though:

print("Whatever {:.3f}".format(pos1))

Or, if you really wanted:

print("Whatever", format(pos1, '.3f'))

Upvotes: 0

Daniel Roseman
Daniel Roseman

Reputation: 599490

You have commas between the string literal and the % sign. Remove those.

print("The average distance from the starting point is a %.3f" % pos1)

Upvotes: 0

Thomas Fenzl
Thomas Fenzl

Reputation: 4392

For string interpolation, you need to put the % operator right behind the format string:

print ("The average distance from the starting point is a %.3f" % pos1)

it is a bit more obvious if you use the more modern format way:

print ("The average distance from the starting point is a {:.3f}".format(pos1))

Upvotes: 1

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