CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonmathrandom
Chris
Chris

Reputation: 361

Adding two numbers using a randomised operator

The following is my code, and it works. It creates two random numbers, a random operator and puts them together, however it does not sum them after doing this. What I need is for the program to recognise it as an equation, rather than simply printing out the individual variables.

So, to avoid confusion; my question is: How would I get firstNumber and secondNumberto be summed together using whatever operator is selected, rather than simply printing them out together?

from random import choice
from random import randint

ranOperator = ["*", "/", "+", "-"]

def askQuestion():
    firstNumber = randint(1,10)
    secondNumber = randint(1,10)
    operator = choice(ranOperator)

    generateQuestion = ' '.join((str(firstNumber), operator, str(secondNumber)))
    print(generateQuestion)

askQuestion()

Current output (example): 

4 + 3

Using the same numbers above, what I would want to happen:

7

Upvotes: 1

Views: 223

Answers (3)

Uday Krishna
Uday Krishna

Reputation: 326

Extending dseuss's answer to incorporate any function and print a math-like equation by mapping a function to its symbol using a dictionary

from random import choice
from random import randint

add = lambda x,y: x+y
substract = lambda x,y: x-y
divide = lambda x,y: x/y
multiply = lambda x,y: x*y

ranOperator = {"*":multiply, "/":divide, "+":add, "-":substract}

def askQuestion():
    firstNumber = randint(1,10)
    secondNumber = randint(1,10)
    operator_key = choice(list(ranOperator.keys()))

    answer = ranOperator[operator_key](firstNumber,secondNumber)
    print("{} {} {} = {}".format(firstNumber, operator_key, secondNumber, answer))

askQuestion()

Upvotes: 3

Austin
Austin

Reputation: 26039

What you need is eval().

eval() evaluates the passed string as a Python expression and returns the result. 

from random import choice
from random import randint

ranOperator = ["*", "/", "+", "-"]

def askQuestion():
    firstNumber = randint(1,10)
    secondNumber = randint(1,10)
    operator = choice(ranOperator)

    generateQuestion = ' '.join((str(firstNumber), operator, str(secondNumber)))
    print(eval(generateQuestion))

askQuestion()

Demo:

>>> eval('1+1')
2
>>> eval('5-3')
2
>>> eval('2*3')
6
>>> eval('6/3')
2

Upvotes: 3

dseuss
dseuss

Reputation: 1141

One way to not rely on eval is using the operator module to represent the operations.

from random import choice
from random import randint
from operator import add, sub, truediv, mul

ranOperator = [add, sub, truediv, mul]

def askQuestion():
    firstNumber = randint(1,10)
    secondNumber = randint(1,10)
    the_operator = choice(ranOperator)

    result = the_operator(firstNumber, secondNumber)
    print(result)

Upvotes: 7

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