CODEWITHSUNDEEP
python
john paul
john paul

Reputation: 1

Could not convert string to float error. ideas/suggestions?

def displaymsg(avg):
    DL=str("deans list")
    AP=str("academic probation")
    message=("no message")
    if (avg>3.5):#if input for avg is > 3.5 message will is = DL
        message=DL
    else:
        if (avg<2.0):#if avg is < 2.0 message is =AP
            message=AP
    return str(message)

gpa=[ ]

stu_data=open ("studentData.txt", encoding = "UTF-8")
firstData=()

for data in stu_data:
    if firstData==0:
        gpa.append(data)
        print("student name:", gpa[firstData])
        firstData=1

    else:
       gpa.append (float(data)) 
stu_data.close()
sumGpa=0
count=5
for index in range (1, count) :
   sumGpa=sumGpa+gpa[index]
   print(gpa[index])  
count=count-1
average=sumGpa/count
msg=displaymsg(average)
print(msg)

when I run this I get a could not convert string to float error. what is inside the studentData.txt document is david smith followed by the numbers 3.2, 3.1, 3.4, 3.3,and 3.5.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 430

Answers (1)

sir_snoopalot
sir_snoopalot

Reputation: 169

I see two issues with your code:

  1. You initialize firstData to a tuple. So the line

    if firstData==0:

will never be true.

  1. You should surround this statement within a try/except clause:

    gpa.append (float(data))

The reason why you're getting the exception is because of 1, since your if statement is always false, the first line from the file which is not a number gets passed to the append statement, where it tries to convert a string that has no numbers to a float.

A utility function like this may be helpful:

def is_number(value):
    try:
        float(value)
        return True
    except ValueError:
        return False

Upvotes: 1

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