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Python Python Basics (2015) Number Game App Squared

Brandon Harrison
Brandon Harrison
1,283 Points
Posted by Brandon Harrison
Brandon Harrison
1,283 Points

I keep getting an error saying I am not returning the right thing

Question:

"Write a function named squared that takes a single argument. If the argument can be converted into an integer, convert it and return the square of the number (num ** 2 or num * num). If the argument cannot be turned into an integer (maybe it's a string of non-numbers?), return the argument multiplied by its length. Look in the file for examples."

This has me completely stumped and I feel like I have approached it a million ways. What am I doing wrong?

squared.py 
# EXAMPLES
# squared(5) would return 25
# squared("2") would return 4
# squared("tim") would return "timtimtim"
def squared(i):
    if i == int:
        return i ** 2
    if i == str:
        return str(i) * len()

1 Answer

Sahil Sharma
Sahil Sharma
4,791 Points
Sahil Sharma
Sahil Sharma
4,791 Points

If you want to check if a variable has a number value then use 

if str(i).isdigit():
    return ( i ** 2)
else:
    return (str(i) * len(i))

notice that I used len(i), you have to pass the argument of the iterable whose length you want in the parenthesis. Apart from this you can also try an alternative approach by using try and except. try to convert the value stored in i to an int using 

try:
    i = int(i)
except ValueError:
    return (str(i) * len(i))
else:
    return (i * i)
Brandon Harrison
Brandon Harrison
1,283 Points
Brandon Harrison
Brandon Harrison
1,283 Points

Thank you so much. The try block worked and I had to read it a couple of times for it to make sense to me but now I got it.

Sahil Sharma
Sahil Sharma
4,791 Points
Sahil Sharma
Sahil Sharma
4,791 Points

Oops, I forgot to add

 i = int(i)

in the if block statement as otherwise return(i ** 2) will throw an error.