Unit P3:

Decisions
DECISIONS, BOOLEAN CONDITIONS, STRING
ANALYSIS, AND INPUT VALIDATION
Chapter 3

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Unit Goals
▪ Input of Numeric and String data
▪ Formatting the output
▪ Implement decisions using the if statement
▪ Compare Numbers (integer and floating-point) and Strings
▪ Write statements using the Boolean data type
▪ Validate user input
In this unit, you will learn how to program simple and
complex decisions. You will apply what you learn to the
task of checking user input and computation results.

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Contents
▪ Data Input and Formatted Output
▪ The if Statement
▪ Relational Operators
▪ Nested Branches
▪ Multiple Alternatives
▪ Boolean Variables and Operators
▪ Analyzing Strings
▪ Application: Input Validation

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Input 2.5

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Input and Output
Your Python program

Running in the Python Interpreter

Output
Input
Python Console
(Terminal, Command Prompt)

User of the program

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Input and Output
▪ You can read a String from the console with the input() function:
o name = input("Please, enter your name")
▪ If numeric (rather than string) input is needed, you must convert
the String value to a number
ageString = input("Please, enter your age: ") # String
input
age = int(ageString) # Converted to int
▪ …or in a single step:
age = int(input("Please, enter your age: "))
price = float(input("Please, enter the price: "))

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Formatted output 2.5

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Formatted output
▪ Inserting values inside strings, mainly for the purposes of an
ordered and easy-to-read display
▪ Several methods are available in Python
o String concatenation

o Formatting operator %

o f-Strings Additional information

can be found in:
https://pyformat.info/
o .format() method

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 Example
pi = 3.14
r = 2
area = (r**2) * pi

print('The area of a circle of radius '+str(r)+' is '+str(area))

print('The area of a circle of radius %f is %f' % (r, area))
print('The area of a circle of radius {rd} is {ar}'.format(rd=r,ar=area))
print(f'The area of a circle of radius {r} is {area}')

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Format operator %
▪ Outputting floating point values can look strange:
o Price per liter: 1.21997
▪ To control the output appearance of numeric variables, use the
format operator %
"string with format specifiers" % ( value, value, … )
▪ Ex: "Price per liter: %.2f" % (price)
o Each format specifiers is replaced by a computed value
o You may control the details of the formatting

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Formatted output
▪ Examples
print("Price per liter %.2f" %(price))
Price per liter: 1.22
print("Price per liter %10.2f" %(price))
Price per liter: 1.22

10 spaces 2 spaces

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Syntax: format operator

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Format flag examples
▪ Left Justify a String:
print("%-10s" %("Total:"))

▪ Right justify a number with two decimal places

print("%10.2f" %(price))

▪ And you can print multiple values:

print("%-10s%10.2f" %("Total: ", price))

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Volume2.py

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Format Specifier Examples

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f-Strings (Formatted String Literals)
▪ A formatted string literal or f-string is a string literal that is prefixed
with 'f' or 'F'.
▪ These strings may contain replacement fields, which are
expressions delimited by curly braces {}.
▪ While other string literals always have a constant value, formatted
strings are really expressions evaluated at run time.

F-Strings are not in the book. See:

https://docs.python.org/3/reference/lexical_analysis.html#f-strings

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f-String Examples
print(f"the result is {result}")
the result is 5 Adding the =
operator, the name
of the variable will
print(f"the result is {a+b}")
be included in the
the result is 15 string.
This feature is not
print(f'my name is {username=}') supported in
pythontutor.com
my name is username=Pedro

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Formatting in f-Strings
▪ Format specifiers may be added inside the {}, separated with a :
symbol
▪ f"The distance is {dist:8.2} meters"
▪ The syntax and meaning of the format specifiers is the same as the
% operator

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Formatting methods comparison
FORMATTING OPERATOR: % F-STRINGS

▪ "your age is %d" % ( age ) ▪ f"your age is {age}"

▪ Format string ▪ String prefixed by an “f” letter
▪ % placeholders ▪ {…} placeholders
o Specify the data type and formatting options o Specify which variable will be used to replace
the placeholders
o May also be an expression
o Formatting options are also accepted
▪ Actual values are inserted
o Specify which variable will be used to replace ▪ {age} is an actual variable in the
the placeholders surrounding python code
o Taken from the values in %(val, val, … )
second argument

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Format specifiers in the f-String
{VarName : [[fill]align][sign][#][0][width] [.precision][type]}
▪ Symbol ‘:’
o Separates the variable name from the required format
▪ Alignment options for example: < (left alignment)
▪ Sing (+ or -)
▪ #VAL (optional): indicates the spaced occupied by the printed
variable
▪ ‘.’ indicates the number of digits in the fractional part, EX: .2
▪ Conversion type EX: b
https://docs.python.org/3/library/string.html#formatspec
http://cis.bentley.edu/sandbox/wp-content/uploads/Documentation-on-f-strings.pdf
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Alignment options
Option Meaning
Forces the field to be left-aligned within the available space (this is the default for most
'<'
objects).
Forces the field to be right-aligned within the available space (this is the default for
'>'
numbers).
Forces the padding to be placed after the sign (if any) but before the digits. This is used for
'=' printing fields in the form ‘+000000120’. This alignment option is only valid for numeric
types.
'^' Forces the field to be centered within the available space.

https://docs.python.org/3/library/string.html#formatspec

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Sign options

Option Meaning
'+' indicates that a sign should be used for both positive as well as negative numbers.
'-' indicates that a sign should be used only for negative numbers (this is the default behavior).
indicates that a leading space should be used on positive numbers, and a minus sign on
space
negative numbers.

https://docs.python.org/3/library/string.html#formatspec

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 Conversion types
Value Type Meaning
str 's' String format. This is the default type for strings and may be omitted.
'b' Binary format. Outputs the number in base 2.
'c' Character. Converts the integer to the corresponding unicode character before printing.
'd' Decimal Integer. Outputs the number in base 10.
int
'o' Octal format. Outputs the number in base 8.
'x' / 'X' Hex format. Outputs the number in base 16, using lower/upper-case letters
'n' Number. Same as 'd', except that it uses the current locale setting to insert the appropriate number separator characters.
'e' / 'E' Exponent notation. Prints in scientific notation using the letter ‘e’ or ‘E’ to indicate the exponent. Default precision is 6.
'f' Fixed-point notation. Displays as a fixed-point number. Default precision is 6.
'F' Fixed-point notation. Same as 'f', but converts nan to NAN and inf to INF.
General format. For a given precision p, rounds the number to p significant digits and then formats the result in either fixed-point
'g'
format or in scientific notation, depending on its magnitude. Default precision is 6.
float
'G' General format. Same as 'g' except switches to 'E' if the number gets too large.
'n' Number. Same as 'g', except that it uses the current locale setting to insert the appropriate number separator characters.
'%' Percentage. Multiplies the number by 100 and displays in fixed ('f') format, followed by a percent sign.
Similar to 'g', except that fixed-point notation, when used, has at least one digit past the decimal point. The default precision is as
None high as needed to represent the particular value.
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The if statement 3.1

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The if Statement
▪ A computer program often needs to make decisions based on
input, or circumstances
▪ For example, buildings often ‘skip’ the 13th floor, and elevators
should too
o The 14th floor is really the 13th floor
o So every floor above 12 is really ‘floor – 1’
• if floor > 12, actual floor = floor - 1

▪ The two keywords composing the if statement are:

o if
o else The if statement allows a program to
carry out different actions depending on
the nature of the data to be processed.

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Flowchart of the if Statement
▪ Exactly one of the two branches is executed once
o True (if) branch or False (else) branch

Indentation:
The content of the if and
else branches must be
indented by some spaces
(usually 2 or 4)

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Flowchart with only a True Branch
▪ An if statement may not need a ‘False’ (else) branch

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Syntax 3.1: The if Statement

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Elevatorsim.py

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Example 1
▪ Open the file: elevatorsim.py
▪ Run the program
o Try a value that is less than 13
• What is the result?
o Run the program again with a value that is greater than 13
• What is the result?

▪ What happens if you enter 13?

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Example 1 - corrected
▪ Revised Problem Statement (1):
o Check the input entered by the user:
o If the input is 13, set the value to 14 and print a message
o Modify the elevatorsim program to test the input
▪ The relational operator for equal is “==”

Important Warning:
Do not confuse = with ==
= declares a variable
= assigns a value
== makes an equality comparison

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Example 1 – proposed addendum
▪ Modified Problem Statement
o In some countries the number 14 is considered unlucky.
o What is the revised algorithm?
o Modify the elevatorsim program to “skip” both the 13th and 14th floor

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 Compound Statements
▪ Some constructs in Python are compound statements.
o The if statement is an example of a compound statement
▪ Compound statements span multiple lines and consist of a header
and a statement block
▪ Compound statements require a colon “:” at the end of the
header.
if <condition>: header
<instr 1>
compound statement <instr 2> statement block
…
<instr n>
else:
…

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 Compound Statements
▪ The statement block is a group of one or more statements, all
indented to the same column
▪ The statement block
o starts on the line after the header
o ends at the first statement that is less indented
▪ Most IDEs properly indent the statement block.
if <condition>: header
<instr 1>
compound statement <instr 2> statement block
…
<instr n>
else:
…

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Compound Statements
▪ Statement blocks can be nested inside the blocks of other
compound statements (of the same or other block type)
▪ In the case of the if construct the statement block specifies:
o The instructions that are executed if the condition is true
o Or skipped if the condition is false
▪ Statement blocks are visual cues that allow you to follow the logic
and flow of a program

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A Common Error
▪ Avoid duplication in branches
▪ If the same code is duplicated in each branch then move it out of
the if statement.

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The Conditional Operator
▪ A “shortcut” you may find in existing code
o It is not used in this course
o The shortcut notation can be used anywhere a value is expected

True branch Condition False branch

Complexity is BAD….
This “shortcut” is difficult to read and a poor programming practice

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Relational operators 3.2

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Relational Operators
▪ Every if statement has a condition
o Usually compares two values with an operator

if floor > 13 :
..
if floor >= 13 :
..
if floor < 13 :
..
if floor <= 13 :
..
if floor == 13 :
..

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Assignment vs. Equality Testing
▪ Assignment: makes something true.
floor = 13

▪ Equality testing: checks if something is true.

Never confuse
if floor == 13 :
=
with
==

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Comparing Strings
▪ Checking if two strings are equal
if name1 == name2 :
print("The strings are identical")

▪ Checking if two strings are not equal

if name1 != name2 :
print("The strings are not identical")

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Checking for String Equality
▪ If any character is different, the two strings will not be equal:

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Relational Operator Examples (1)

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Relational Operator Examples (2)

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Example
▪ Open the file:
o compare.py

▪ Run the program

o What are the results?

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Common Error (Floating Point)
▪ Floating-point numbers have only a limited precision, and
calculations can introduce roundoff errors.
▪ You must take these inevitable roundoffs into account when
comparing floating point numbers.

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Common Error (Floating Point, 2)
▪ For example, the following code multiplies the square root of 2 by
itself.
▪ Ideally, we expect to get the answer 2:

r = math.sqrt(2.0)
if r * r == 2.0 :
print("sqrt(2.0) squared is 2.0")
else :
print("sqrt(2.0) squared is not 2.0 but", r * r)

Output:
sqrt(2.0) squared is not 2.0 but 2.0000000000000004

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The Use of EPSILON
▪ Use a very small value to compare the difference to determine if
floating-point values are ‘close enough’
o The magnitude of their difference should be less than some threshold
o Mathematically, we would write that x and y are close enough if:

EPSILON = 1E-14
r = math.sqrt(2.0)
if abs(r * r - 2.0) < EPSILON :
print("sqrt(2.0) squared is approximately 2.0")

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Lexicographical Order
▪ To compare Strings in ‘dictionary’ like order:
ostring1 < string2

▪ Notes
o All UPPERCASE letters come before lowercase
• ‘A’ comes before ‘a’, but also ‘Z’ comes before ‘a’
o‘space’ comes before all other printable characters
oDigits (0-9) come before all letters
oThe order is ruled by the Basic Latin (ASCII) Subset of Unicode
• Accented characters are not always logical

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Operator Precedence
▪ The comparison operators have lower precedence than arithmetic
operators
o Calculations are done before the comparison
o Normally your calculations are on the ‘right side’ of the comparison or
assignment operator
Calculations

actualFloor = floor + 1

if floor > height + 1 :

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Example

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The Sale Example
▪ The university bookstore has a Kilobyte Day sale every October 24
(10.24), giving an 8 percent discount on all computer accessory
purchases if the price is less than $128, and a 16 percent discount
if the price is at least $128.

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Implementing an if Statement (1)
▪ 1) Decide on a branching condition
o Original price < 128 ?
▪ 2) Write pseudocode for the true branch
o Discounted price = 0.92 * original price
▪ 3) Write pseudocode for the false branch
o Discounted price = 0.84 * original price

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Implementing an if Statement (2)
▪ 4) Double-check relational operators
o Test values below, at, and above the comparison (127, 128, 129)
▪ 5) Remove duplication
o Discounted price = _____ * original price
▪ 6) Test both branches
o Discounted price = 0.92 * 100 = 92
o Discounted price = 0.84 * 200 = 168
▪ 7) Write the code in Python

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The Sale Example (solution)
▪ Open the file:
o sale.py

▪ Run the program several times using different values

o Use values less than 128
o Use values greater that 128
o Enter 128
o Enter invalid inputs

▪ What results do you get?

if originalPrice < 128 :
discountRate = 0.92
else :
discountRate = 0.84
discountedPrice = discountRate * originalPrice

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Nested
Branches 3.3

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Flowchart of a Nested if
Ask for order ▪ Nested if-else
inside true branch
True
of an if statement.
False
Wine? Check ID o Three paths

Serve non- False >= True

alcoholic 21?
drink

Read law Serve wine

Done
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Nested Branches
▪ You can nest an if inside either branch of an if statement.
▪ Simple example: Ordering drinks (pseudo code)

Ask the customer for his/her drink order

if customer orders wine
Ask customer for ID
if customer’s age is 21 or over
Serve wine
nested IF
else
Politely explain the law to the customer
else
Serve customer a non-alcoholic drink

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 Tips on Indenting Blocks
▪ Let pyCharm do the indenting for you… (menu: Code – Auto-Indent lines)

▪ This is referred to as “block structured” code. Indenting consistently is

syntactically required in Python, but also makes code much easier to
follow.
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Tax Example: nested ifs
▪ Four outcomes (branches)

• Single
• <= 32000
• > 32000

• Married
• <= 64000
• > 64000

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Flowchart for the Tax Example
▪ Four branches

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Taxes.py (1)

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Taxes.py (2)
▪ The ‘True’ branch (Single)
o Two branches within this branch

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Taxes.py (3)
▪ The ‘False’ branch (Married)

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Running the Tax Example
▪ Open the file:
o taxes.py
▪ Run the program several time using different values for income
and marital status
o Use income values less than $32,000
o Use income values greater than $64,000
o Enter “&” as the marital status
▪ What results do you get?

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Hand-tracing
▪ Hand-tracing helps you understand whether a program works
correctly
▪ Create a table of key variables
o Use pencil and paper to track their values
▪ Works with pseudocode or code
o Track location with a marker
▪ Use example input values that:
o You know what the correct outcome should be
o Will test each branch of your code

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Hand-tracing the Tax Example
▪ Setup
o Table of variables
o Initial values

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Hand-tracing the Tax Example (2)
▪ Input variables
o From user
o Update table

• Because marital status is not “s” we skip to the else on line 25

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Hand-tracing the Tax Example (3)
▪ Because income is not <= 64000, we move to the else clause on
line 28
o Update variables on lines 29 and 30
o Use constants

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Multiple
Alternatives 3.4

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Multiple Alternatives
▪ What if you have more than two branches?
▪ Count the branches for the following earthquake effect example:
o 8 (or greater)
o 7 to 7.99
o 6 to 6.99
o 4.5 to 5.99
o Less than 4.5

When using multiple if statements,

test the general conditions after the
more specific conditions.

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Flowchart of Multiway Branching
True
>= 8.0? Most Structures Fall

False
True
>= 7.0? Many Buildings Destroyed

False
True Many buildings considerably damaged,
>= 6.0?
some collapse

False
True
>= 4.5? Damage to poorly constructed buildings

False
No destruction of buildings

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What is Wrong With This Code?

if richter >= 8.0 :

print("Most structures fall")
if richter >= 7.0 :
print("Many buildings destroyed")
if richter >= 6.0 :
print("Many buildings damaged, some collapse")
if richter >= 4.5 :
print("Damage to poorly constructed buildings")

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elif Statement
▪ Short for: Else, if…
▪ As soon as one of the test conditions succeeds, the statement
block is executed
o No other tests are attempted
▪ If none of the test conditions succeed the final else clause is
executed

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 if, elif Multiway Branching
if richter >= 8.0 : # Handle the ‘special case’ first
print("Most structures fall")
elif richter >= 7.0 :
print("Many buildings destroyed")
elif richter >= 6.0 :
print("Many buildings damaged, some collapse")
elif richter >= 4.5 :
print("Damage to poorly constructed buildings")
else : # so that the ‘general case’ can be handled last
print("No destruction of buildings")

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earthquake Example
▪ Open the file:
o earthquake.py

▪ Run the program with several different inputs

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Boolean Variables and
Operators 3.7

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The Boolean logic of electronic computers
▪ In 1847 George Boole introduced a new type of formal logic, based
exclusively on statements for which it was possible to verify their
truth (true or false) in an algebraic way
▪ Computers adopt Boolean logic

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Boolean Variables
▪ Boolean Variables
o Boolean variables can be either True or False
• failed = True
o bool is a Python data type
o A Boolean variable is often called a flag 🏁 because it can be either up
(true) or down (false)
o The condition of the if statement is, in fact, a Boolean value
▪ There are three Boolean Operators: and, or, not
o They are used to combine multiple Boolean conditions

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Combined Conditions: and
▪ Combining two conditions is often used in range checking
o Is a value between two other values?
▪ Both sides of the and must be true for the result to be true

if temp > 0 and temp < 100 :

print("Liquid")

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 Remembering a condition
▪ Boolean variables may be used to “remember” a condition, and
test it later.

isLiquid = temp > 0 and temp < 100

if temp > 0 and temp < 100 : # Boolean value True/False
print("Liquid")
if isLiquid :
print("Liquid")

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Chained Comparison Operators
▪ Natural language: “If temperature is within the range from 0 to
100”
▪ Maths: 0 ⩽ temp ⩽ 100
▪ Python: 0 <= temp and temp <= 100

▪ You may also write: 0 <= temp <= 100

o Python allows chained comparison operators
o Most other programming languages do not allow this
o Tip: avoid this shortcut, use an explicit and

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and Flowchart
▪ This is often called ‘range checking’
o Used to validate that the input is between
two values

if temp > 0 and temp < 100 :

print("Liquid")

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Combined Conditions: or
▪ We use or if only one of two conditions need to be true
o Use a compound conditional with an or:
if temp <= 0 or temp >= 100 :
print("Not liquid")

▪ If either condition is true

o The result is true

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or flowchart
▪ Another form of ‘range checking’
o Checks if value is outside a range

if temp <= 0 or temp >= 100 :

print("Not Liquid")

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The not operator: not
▪ If you need to invert a boolean variable or comparison, precede it
with not
if not attending or grade < 18 :
print("Drop?")

if attending and not(grade < 18) :

print("Stay")

▪ For clarity, try to replace not with simpler logic

if attending and grade >= 18 :
print("Stay")

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Note
if not ( a == b ):
# Is equivalent to
if a != b :

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Comparison Example
▪ Open the file:
o Compare2.py
▪ Run the program with several inputs

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Boolean Operator Examples

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Common Errors with Boolean Conditions
▪ Confusing and with or Conditions
o It is a surprisingly common error to confuse and and or conditions.
o A value lies between 0 and 100 if it is at least 0 and at most 100.
o It lies outside that range if it is less than 0 or greater than 100.
▪ There is no golden rule; you just have to think carefully.

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Short-circuit Evaluation: and
▪ Combined conditions are evaluated from left to right
o If the left half of an and condition is false, why look further?

if temp > 0 and temp < 100 :

print("Liquid")

Done!

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 Short-circuit Evaluation: or
▪ If the left half of the or is true, why look further?

if temp <= 0 or temp >= 100 :

print("Not Liquid")

Done!

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Some Boolean Properties
▪ Commutative:
o A and B = B and A
o A or B = B or A
▪ Associative:
o A and B and C = (A and B) and C = A and (B and C)
o A or B or C = (A or B) or C = A or (B or C)
▪ Distributive:
o A and (B or C) = A and B or A and C
o A or (B and C) = (A or B) and (A or C)

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De Morgan’s law
▪ De Morgan’s law tells you how to negate and and or conditions:
o not(A and B) is the same as not(A) or not(B)
o not(A or B) is the same as not(A) and not(B)
▪ Example: Shipping is higher to AK and HI
if (country != "USA" if not(country=="USA"
and state != "AK" or state=="AK"
and state != "HI") : or state=="HI") :
shippingCharge = 20.00 shippingCharge = 20.00

▪ To simplify conditions with negations of and or or expressions, it’s

a good idea to apply De Morgan’s law to move the negations to the
innermost level.

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String analysis 3.8

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Analyzing Strings – The in Operator
▪ Sometimes it’s necessary to analyze or ask certain questions about
a particular string
▪ Example: it is necessary to determine if a string contains a given
substring. That is, if one string contains an exact match of another
string
o Given this code segment:
name = "John Wayne"
o the expression
"Way" in name
o yields True because the substring "Way" occurs within the string stored in
variable name
▪ The not in operator is the inverse of the in operator

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Substring: Suffixes
▪ Suppose you are given the name of a file and need to ensure that it
has the correct extension
if filename.endswith(".html") :
print("This is an HTML file.")
▪ The endswith() string method is applied to the string stored in
filename and returns True if the string ends with the substring
".html" and False otherwise.

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Operations for Testing Substrings

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Methods: Testing String Characteristics (1)

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Methods for Testing String Characteristics (2)

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Comparing and Analyzing Strings

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Substring Example
▪ Open the file:
o Substrings.py
▪ Run the program and test several strings and substrings

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Input Validation 3.9

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Input Validation
▪ Accepting user input is dangerous
o Consider the Elevator program:
o Assume that the elevator panel has buttons labeled 1 through 20 (but not
13).

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Input Validation
▪ The following are illegal inputs:
o The number 13
if floor == 13 :
print("Error: There is no thirteenth floor.")

o Zero or a negative number

o A number larger than 20
if floor <= 0 or floor > 20 :
print("Error: The floor must be between 1 and 20.")

o An input that is not a sequence of digits, such as five:

• Python’s exception mechanism is needed to help verify integer and floating point values (Chapter
7).

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Elevatorsim2.py

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Elevator Simulation
▪ Open the file:
o elevatorsim2.py
▪ Test the program with a range of inputs including:
o 12
o 14
o 13
o -1
o0
o 23
o 19

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General rule
▪ Never trust user input
▪ When you read information from the user, always check that it
contains acceptable values, before continuing with the program
▪ If values are not acceptable, print a message, and:
o Ask again for a correct value (see Loops, Chapter 4)
o Exit from the program:
from sys import exit
exit("Value not acceptable")

It is impossible to make anything

foolproof because fools are so
ingenious…
(Unattributed variant to Murphy’s Law)

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Summary

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Summary: if Statement
▪ The if statement allows a program to carry out different actions
depending on the nature of the data to be processed.
▪ Relational operators ( < <= > >= == != ) are used to compare
numbers and Strings.
▪ Strings are compared in lexicographic order.
▪ Multiple if statements can be combined to evaluate complex
decisions.
▪ When using multiple if statements, test general conditions after
more specific conditions.

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Summary: Boolean
▪ The type boolean has two values, True and False.
o Python has two Boolean operators that combine conditions: and , or.
o To invert a condition, use the not operator.
o The and & or operators are computed lazily:
• As soon as the truth value is determined, no further conditions are evaluated.
o De Morgan’s law tells you how to negate and & or conditions.

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Summary: python overview
▪ Use the input() function to read keyboard input in a console
window.
▪ If the input is not a string, use int() or float() to convert it to a
number
▪ Use the format specifiers to specify how values should be
formatted.
▪ Use f-strings for easier formatting

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