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Python Python Basics (2015) Number Game App Squared

I tried this function in the Python IDE, but, for some reason, the code challenge won't accept the answer.

def squared(num): try: return int(num * num) except: return num * len(num)

squared.py
# EXAMPLES
# squared(5) would return 25
# squared("2") would return 4
# squared("tim") would return "timtimtim"
def squared(num):
    try:
        return int(num * num)
    except:
        return num * len(num)

1 Answer

Hi Matthew,

The way I think about the question is that the teacher is talking about a conditional, just not the if-then-else block. Rather, he is looking for try-except condition.

So, based on his question, it is necessary to set up a conditional test to tell Python to covert the input to an integer if it is not already. In the try block, set the data type to int and that will set up the test. After that, the rest of your code will work fine.

It should look something like this:

def squared(num):
    try:
        num = int(num)
        return num * num
    except:
        return num * len(num)

Cheers!