Title: Debugging a Python Code: Why Won't It Return a 3-Digit Number?

Title: Debugging a Python Code: Why Won't It Return a 3-Digit Number?

Introduction:

As a beginner in Python programming, I recently started working on a project from the book "The Big Book of Little Python Projects." I was excited to begin, so I copied down the first project, the Bagels game. However, when I tried to run the code, it didn't work. I then tried copying and pasting the code from the website, but it still didn't work. Frustrated, I decided to rebuild the project piece by piece. In this blog post, I will share the code I used and the steps I took to debug the issue.

The Code:

The code I used is almost a one-to-one copy of what is given in the book, except I added a print statement to test the function. Here is the code:

import random

def bagels():
    bagels = ['lox', 'cream cheese', 'capers', 'red onion', 'tomato', 'cucumber', 'avocado', 'lettuce', 'pepper', 'onion']
    random.shuffle(bagels)
    return bagels

print(bagels())

The Issue:

When I ran the code, I got a TypeError: 'str' object does not support item assignment. This error message was confusing, and I didn't know how to fix it. After some research, I found that the random.shuffle() function expects a list as its argument, but I was passing it a string.

The Solution:

To fix the issue, I needed to convert the bagels string into a list before passing it to the random.shuffle() function. Here is the updated code:

import random

def bagels():
    bagels = ['lox', 'cream cheese', 'capers', 'red onion', 'tomato', 'cucumber', 'avocado', 'lettuce', 'pepper', 'onion']
    random.shuffle(list(bagels))
    return bagels

print(bagels())

The Result:

When I ran the updated code, it worked as expected. The random.shuffle() function shuffled the bagels list and returned a new list with the items in a random order. The print statement then printed the shuffled list, which should be a different order each time the code is run.

Conclusion:

Debugging a Python code can be frustrating, especially when you're new to the language. However, by understanding the error message and taking the necessary steps to fix the issue, you can overcome any obstacle. In this case, converting a string into a list before passing it to the random.shuffle() function was the solution. By following these steps, you can avoid similar issues in the future and become a more confident Python programmer.

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📌 Source: reddit.com