Decide if number is Armstrong number

Question

I just recently started reading the python.org documents and it looked like a really interesting language. Now, since Visual Studio 2017 supports Python, I decided to finally actually start learning it. My friend challenged me to write a program that checks if a number is an Armstrong number.

import sys
def isArmstrong(number):
 arr = str(number)
 count = len(arr)
 res = 0
 for x in range(0, count):
 res += int(arr[x]) ** count
 return res == number
if len(sys.argv) > 1:
 arg = sys.argv[1]
 print(arg + " is an armstrong number: " + str(isArmstrong(int(arg))))
else:
 print("No arguments passed! :-(");

Now this is the first solution that I could come up with. As you can see, it converts the number to a string to determine the amount of digits, and then handle them individually. Is this the smartest way to do it, or can it be done without converting to a string? If not: Is there anything I can do to improve this code performance-wise?

• mdfst13: Hi. Welcome to Code Review! I would find something like this easier to read if it explained what an Armstrong number is. Saves a trip to Google.
• Sulakore: @mdfst13 You're right, that would've been smart. Thanks!

Answer 1

By PEP 8, Python's official style guide, function names should generally be lower_case_with_underscores. Also, the final semicolon should be omitted.

The function would typically be written more elegantly using the sum() builtin function, with a generator expression. (It's not any faster than your original code, though. Actually, a tiny bit slower.)

I don't recommend using arr as a variable name, since it's neither descriptive (what does the array represent?) nor accurate (it's actually a string).

For the printout, I recommend using str.format() or one of the other formatting mechanisms.

import sys
def is_armstrong(number):
 digits = str(number)
 length = len(digits)
 return number == sum(int(digit) ** length for digit in digits)
if len(sys.argv) > 1:
 arg = int(sys.argv[1])
 print('{} is an Armstrong number? {}'.format(arg, is_armstrong(arg)))
else:
 print("No arguments passed! :-(")

• Sulakore: Wow, that style guide is really useful. Also had never heard of .format() or sum(), thanks for all this! Also I called it "arr" because I'm used to char[] for character arrays in C# haha
• Oscar Smith: The only change I'd make to this answer is to use f-strings, ie f'{arg} is an Armstrong number? {is_armstrong(arg}'. The advantage is pretty obvious. It just looks so much nicer. The only downside is they need python 3.6 or newer.