function is not returning what is intended

The function that I created is to measure the length of an argument!. I want to return "Sorry, integers don't have length"

def string_length(mystring):
if type(mystring) == int:
return "Sorry, integers don't have length"
else:
return len(mystring)

mystring = input("what is the value ?")
print(string_length(mystring))


what am I doing wrong?

2 Answers
2

Your question isn't very clear, but this should work, if my understanding is not wrong:

def string_length(mystring):
try:
if type(int(mystring)) == int:
return "Sorry, integers don't have length"
elif type(mystring) == str:
return len(mystring)
except:
return len(str(mystring))
mystring = input("what is the value ?")
print(string_length(mystring))


type(int(mystring)) == int

In Python2, input will evaluate to an integer, not a string, which would explain the message.

input

You can use hasattr to check for the __len__ magic function rather than doing explict type checking.

hasattr

__len__

This should work for any iterable type, I believe

def string_length(mystring):
if hasattr(mystring, '__len__'):
return len(mystring)
else:
print("Sorry, {} don't have length".format(type(mystring)))
return None

mystring = input("what is the value ?")
print(string_length(mystring))


Then, make sure you are running this in Python3

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