Checking user input via raw_input method

Question

I'm trying to use raw_input to get input from the user, i want to catch the instances where the user may enter a number. I've been searching threw stack overflow and various other websites and i haven't come across anything that made much sense to me. Since raw_input always returns a string is it even possible to catch such an instance?

class Employee(object):

    def __init__(self,name,pay_rate,hours):

        self.name = name
        self.pay_rate = pay_rate
        self.hours = ("mon","tues","wed","thursday","friday","saturday","sunday")

    def __str__(self):
        return self.name       

    @property
    def weekly_total(self):
        return sum(self.hours)

    @classmethod
    def from_input(cls):
        while True:
            try:
                name = raw_input("Enter new employee name\n")
            except ValueError:
                print("\n  This is a integer  ")
                continue           
            else:
                break
        while True:
            try:
                pay = input("Enter pay rate  ")
            except ValueError:
                print("You must enter a value  ")
                continue
            else:
                break
        while True:
            try:
                hours = input("Enter a tuple for days monday through sunday  ")
            except ValueError:
                print("use must enter a tuple with 7 integer values")
                continue
            else:
                break
        return cls(name,pay,hours)    

employee = Employee.from_input()
print str(employee)

Do you mean you want to ensure the user enters a number when you want a number, or vice versa? Note that you shouldn't be using input() - int(raw_input(...)) is more explicit. — jonrsharpe
– jonrsharpe, Commented Jul 28, 2014 at 16:36
Vice-versa but i will need the former as well for the pay input and hours tuple input. I want to ensure a string is entered for the name and then ensure that float values are entered for pay and hours. — Achilles
– Achilles, Commented Jul 28, 2014 at 16:39

jonrsharpe · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-28 18:31:22Z

1

I would split this into separate functions; there are neater ways to do this, but I have made them as similar as possible so you can see the process:

def get_int_input(prompt):
    while True:
        s = raw_input(prompt)
        try:
            i = int(s)
        except ValueError:
            print "Please enter an integer."
        else:
            return i

def get_non_int_input(prompt):
    while True:
        s = raw_input(prompt)
        try:
            i = int(s)
        except ValueError:
            return s
        else:
            print "Please don't enter an integer."

edited Jul 28, 2014 at 18:31

answered Jul 28, 2014 at 16:40

jonrsharpe

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8 Comments

Achilles Over a year ago

Oh, i was trying things similar to this i was on the right track, i see exactly what you did here thanks again.

Achilles Over a year ago

So i can just code two similar functions and then call these functions inside my from_input method to do the checking?

jonrsharpe Over a year ago

Yes, exactly. This cuts down on duplication.

Achilles Over a year ago

I'm confused about what to do with the name , pay and hours inputs in the from_input method now that i have these two new functions do i need to pass each one of these into my new check functions in order to keep my final return statement cls(name,pay,hours) working properly?

jonrsharpe Over a year ago

It's not clear what you're asking. from_input should just contain e.g. pay = get_int_input("Enter pay rate: "), and a for loop for the daily hours, then return cls(...) at the end. The sub-functions are called to get the input, not just to check it.

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