CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonwhile-loop
Andrew Pampuch
Andrew Pampuch

Reputation: 65

Can't break out of a while loop

I'm writing a terrible text-based adventure, and I can't figure out how to break this loop. I'll try to post the relevant stuff here. Please tell me if my comments don't adequately explain what I'm trying to do.

chained = 1
finished = 0

# home() and club() act as rooms in the game
def home():
    while chained == 1:
        # there's a way to unchain yourself that works
        chained = 0
    while chained == 0:
        print 'your are in the room'
        input = raw_input('> ')
        if 'exit' in input or 'leave' in input or 'club' in input:
            current_room = 'club'
            break

def club():
    print "this works"

# These sort of move you around the rooms.
# current_room keeps track of what room you're in
current_room = 'home'
while finished == 0:
    if current_room == 'home':
        home()
    if current_room == 'club':
        club()

The expected behavior is that I would enter "exit" or "leave" or "club" into the input, the home() function would end, and the club() function would start. What actually happens is that the terminal just keeps printing "you are in the room" and keeps giving me the input.

I'll post my completely unabridged code if I must, but I'd rather not, as the actual adventure isn't exactly...professional.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 3864

Answers (3)

Josnidhin
Josnidhin

Reputation: 12504

I think you need to do make the current_room a global variable. Because the variable current_room in home() and the one in while finished has different scopes.

Something like the following is what you are trying to achieve I guess. Look up on python variable scopes

chained = 1
finished = 0
current_room = 'home'

# home() and club() act as rooms in the game
def home():
    global chained
    # without the following line current_room has local scope and updating its value will not be
    # reflected in the while at the end
    global current_room 
    while chained == 1:
        # there's a way to unchain yourself that works
        chained = 0
    while chained == 0:
        print 'your are in the room'
        input = raw_input('> ')
        if 'exit' in input or 'leave' in input or 'club' in input:
            current_room = 'club'
            break

def club():
    print "this works"

# These sort of move you around the rooms.
# current_room keeps track of what room you're in
while finished == 0:
    if current_room == 'home':
        home()
    if current_room == 'club':
        club()

Upvotes: 0

Deelaka
Deelaka

Reputation: 13723

Though I never really understood what the code was meant for here's solution that works. You haven't stated if the variable's were global or local and why would you use loops when simple if-else statements could be used

chained = 0
finished = 0

# home() and club() act as rooms in the game
def home():
    global chained,current_room
    if chained == 1:
        # there's a way to unchain yourself that works
        chained = 0
    if chained == 0:
        print 'your are in the room'
        input = raw_input('> ')
        if 'exit' in input or 'leave' in input or 'club' in input:
            current_room = 'club'
            club()

# Not sure if finished is a local or global variable
def club():
    global finished,current_room
    print "this is messy code!!"
# These sort of move you around the rooms.
# current_room keeps track of what room you're in
    current_room = 'home'
    if finished == 0:
        if current_room == 'home':
            home()
        if current_room == 'club':
            club()
home()

Upvotes: 0

TerryA
TerryA

Reputation: 60024

What break is doing is breaking out of the loop in the home() function. So when that breaks, it will go back to the beginning of 

while finished == 0:

And will keep on repeating that input.

You have to also supply a break after home() (and club()):

while finished == 0:
    if current_room == 'home':
        home()
        break
    if current_room == 'club':
        club()
        break

Your code is extremely messy, by the way. While loops shouldn't be used for things like this (except when you're trying to get an input of exit or leave)

You may as well get rid of the final while loop.

Upvotes: 4

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