Validate that a value is in a certain range, e.g. 1 = val =2
validates :value, :inclusion => {:in => [1,2]}
See http://apidock.com/rails/ActiveModel/Validations/HelperMethods/validates_inclusion_of
How to elegantly check if a number is within a range?
There are a lot of options:
int x = 30;
if (Enumerable.Range(1,100).Contains(x)) //true
And indeed basic if
more elegantly can be written with reversing order in the first check:
if (1 <= x && x <= 100) //true
Also, check out this SO post for regex options.
Notes:
LINQ solution is strictly for style points - since Contains iterates over all items its complexity is O(range_size) and not O(1) normally expected from a range check.
More generic version for other ranges (notice that second argument is count, not end):if (Enumerable.Range(start, end - start + 1).Contains(x)
There is temptation to write
if
solution without&&
like1 <= x <= 100
- that look really elegant, but in C# leads to a syntax error "Operator '<=' cannot be applied to operands of type 'bool' and 'int'"
Determine whether integer is between two other integers
if 10000 <= number <= 30000:
pass
For details, see the docs.
How to check if a number is between two values?
Tests whether windowsize
is greater than 500
and lesser than 600
meaning that neither values 500
or 600
itself will result in the condition becoming true.
if (windowsize > 500 && windowsize < 600) {
// ...
}
PHP: How can I determine if a variable has a value that is between two distinct constant values?
if (($value > 1 && $value < 10) || ($value > 20 && $value < 40))
How to check if an integer is within a range of numbers in PHP?
The expression:
($min <= $value) && ($value <= $max)
will be true if $value
is between $min
and $max
, inclusively
See the PHP docs for more on comparison operators
Check if a value is within a range of numbers
You're asking a question about numeric comparisons, so regular expressions really have nothing to do with the issue. You don't need "multiple if
" statements to do it, either:
if (x >= 0.001 && x <= 0.009) {
// something
}
You could write yourself a "between()" function:
function between(x, min, max) {
return x >= min && x <= max;
}
// ...
if (between(x, 0.001, 0.009)) {
// something
}
How to test multiple variables for equality against a single value?
You misunderstand how boolean expressions work; they don't work like an English sentence and guess that you are talking about the same comparison for all names here. You are looking for:
if x == 1 or y == 1 or z == 1:
x
and y
are otherwise evaluated on their own (False
if 0
, True
otherwise).
You can shorten that using a containment test against a tuple:
if 1 in (x, y, z):
or better still:
if 1 in {x, y, z}:
using a set
to take advantage of the constant-cost membership test (i.e. in
takes a fixed amount of time whatever the left-hand operand is).
Explanation
When you use or
, python sees each side of the operator as separate expressions. The expression x or y == 1
is treated as first a boolean test for x
, then if that is False, the expression y == 1
is tested.
This is due to operator precedence. The or
operator has a lower precedence than the ==
test, so the latter is evaluated first.
However, even if this were not the case, and the expression x or y or z == 1
was actually interpreted as (x or y or z) == 1
instead, this would still not do what you expect it to do.
x or y or z
would evaluate to the first argument that is 'truthy', e.g. not False
, numeric 0 or empty (see boolean expressions for details on what Python considers false in a boolean context).
So for the values x = 2; y = 1; z = 0
, x or y or z
would resolve to 2
, because that is the first true-like value in the arguments. Then 2 == 1
would be False
, even though y == 1
would be True
.
The same would apply to the inverse; testing multiple values against a single variable; x == 1 or 2 or 3
would fail for the same reasons. Use x == 1 or x == 2 or x == 3
or x in {1, 2, 3}
.
Asking the user for input until they give a valid response
The simplest way to accomplish this is to put the input
method in a while loop. Use continue
when you get bad input, and break
out of the loop when you're satisfied.
When Your Input Might Raise an Exception
Use try
and except
to detect when the user enters data that can't be parsed.
while True:
try:
# Note: Python 2.x users should use raw_input, the equivalent of 3.x's input
age = int(input("Please enter your age: "))
except ValueError:
print("Sorry, I didn't understand that.")
#better try again... Return to the start of the loop
continue
else:
#age was successfully parsed!
#we're ready to exit the loop.
break
if age >= 18:
print("You are able to vote in the United States!")
else:
print("You are not able to vote in the United States.")
Implementing Your Own Validation Rules
If you want to reject values that Python can successfully parse, you can add your own validation logic.
while True:
data = input("Please enter a loud message (must be all caps): ")
if not data.isupper():
print("Sorry, your response was not loud enough.")
continue
else:
#we're happy with the value given.
#we're ready to exit the loop.
break
while True:
data = input("Pick an answer from A to D:")
if data.lower() not in ('a', 'b', 'c', 'd'):
print("Not an appropriate choice.")
else:
break
Combining Exception Handling and Custom Validation
Both of the above techniques can be combined into one loop.
while True:
try:
age = int(input("Please enter your age: "))
except ValueError:
print("Sorry, I didn't understand that.")
continue
if age < 0:
print("Sorry, your response must not be negative.")
continue
else:
#age was successfully parsed, and we're happy with its value.
#we're ready to exit the loop.
break
if age >= 18:
print("You are able to vote in the United States!")
else:
print("You are not able to vote in the United States.")
Encapsulating it All in a Function
If you need to ask your user for a lot of different values, it might be useful to put this code in a function, so you don't have to retype it every time.
def get_non_negative_int(prompt):
while True:
try:
value = int(input(prompt))
except ValueError:
print("Sorry, I didn't understand that.")
continue
if value < 0:
print("Sorry, your response must not be negative.")
continue
else:
break
return value
age = get_non_negative_int("Please enter your age: ")
kids = get_non_negative_int("Please enter the number of children you have: ")
salary = get_non_negative_int("Please enter your yearly earnings, in dollars: ")
Putting It All Together
You can extend this idea to make a very generic input function:
def sanitised_input(prompt, type_=None, min_=None, max_=None, range_=None):
if min_ is not None and max_ is not None and max_ < min_:
raise ValueError("min_ must be less than or equal to max_.")
while True:
ui = input(prompt)
if type_ is not None:
try:
ui = type_(ui)
except ValueError:
print("Input type must be {0}.".format(type_.__name__))
continue
if max_ is not None and ui > max_:
print("Input must be less than or equal to {0}.".format(max_))
elif min_ is not None and ui < min_:
print("Input must be greater than or equal to {0}.".format(min_))
elif range_ is not None and ui not in range_:
if isinstance(range_, range):
template = "Input must be between {0.start} and {0.stop}."
print(template.format(range_))
else:
template = "Input must be {0}."
if len(range_) == 1:
print(template.format(*range_))
else:
expected = " or ".join((
", ".join(str(x) for x in range_[:-1]),
str(range_[-1])
))
print(template.format(expected))
else:
return ui
With usage such as:
age = sanitised_input("Enter your age: ", int, 1, 101)
answer = sanitised_input("Enter your answer: ", str.lower, range_=('a', 'b', 'c', 'd'))
Common Pitfalls, and Why you Should Avoid Them
The Redundant Use of Redundant input
Statements
This method works but is generally considered poor style:
data = input("Please enter a loud message (must be all caps): ")
while not data.isupper():
print("Sorry, your response was not loud enough.")
data = input("Please enter a loud message (must be all caps): ")
It might look attractive initially because it's shorter than the while True
method, but it violates the Don't Repeat Yourself principle of software development. This increases the likelihood of bugs in your system. What if you want to backport to 2.7 by changing input
to raw_input
, but accidentally change only the first input
above? It's a SyntaxError
just waiting to happen.
Recursion Will Blow Your Stack
If you've just learned about recursion, you might be tempted to use it in get_non_negative_int
so you can dispose of the while loop.
def get_non_negative_int(prompt):
try:
value = int(input(prompt))
except ValueError:
print("Sorry, I didn't understand that.")
return get_non_negative_int(prompt)
if value < 0:
print("Sorry, your response must not be negative.")
return get_non_negative_int(prompt)
else:
return value
This appears to work fine most of the time, but if the user enters invalid data enough times, the script will terminate with a RuntimeError: maximum recursion depth exceeded
. You may think "no fool would make 1000 mistakes in a row", but you're underestimating the ingenuity of fools!
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