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Python Python Basics Functions and Looping Raise an Exception

Posted by Victor A Hernandez
Victor A Hernandez
1,957 Points

How to raise an Exception. What I'm doing wrong with my coding? This is my code:def suggest product_idea: return pro

suggestinator.py 
def suggest product_idea:
    return product_idea + "inator"
if product_idea <3:
    raise ValueError(" ")

3 Answers

Victor A Hernandez
Victor A Hernandez
1,957 Points

Thanks Cameron, I appreciate you help.

Cameron Childres
Cameron Childres
11,820 Points
Cameron Childres
Cameron Childres
11,820 Points

Hi Victor,

Some things to point out:

  • The parentheses originally included in the function are necessary to set the parameters, don't remove them
  • A string and an integer can't be compared with the ">" operator, so you'll need to use the len() function on product_idea to convert it to a number representing its length
  • Your "if" statement is outside of the function -- we want the error to be raised as part of the function, before anything is returned

I hope this helps steer you in the right direction! Let me know if you need any further assistance.

Victor A Hernandez
Victor A Hernandez
1,957 Points
Victor A Hernandez
Victor A Hernandez
1,957 Points

Honestly, I don't get the idea.

Cameron Childres
Cameron Childres
11,820 Points
Cameron Childres
Cameron Childres
11,820 Points

Okay, I'll go through the code from the challenge with my points from above in mind:

def suggest(product_idea):
    return product_idea + "inator"

This defines a function that will return whatever we pass to it plus "inator". The challenge wants us to raise an error if the string passed to it is shorter than 3 characters. We want it included in the function, and we want to raise the error before the function returns the result. Since code runs from top to bottom we'll put it here:

def suggest(product_idea):
    #raise error here
    return product_idea + "inator"

The error needs to be raised only when the amount of characters in product_idea is less than 3. An "if" statement is perfect for that, but if we try to compare a string to a number it won't work. We need to convert the string to a number representing its total amount of characters (or length) which is done with the function len():

def suggest(product_idea):
    if len(product_idea) < 3:
        raise ValueError
    return product_idea + "inator"