Beginner Python: Format Output

Question

I was trying to finish an assignment until I reached this small issue.

My dilemma is: My output is printed correctly, but how do I get the key # and its respective output to be printed together neatly?

Example:

• key 1: ABCDEB

• key 2: EFGFHI

• etc

My Code:

def main():
 # hardcode
 phrase = raw_input ("Enter the phrase you would like to decode: ")
 # 1-26 alphabets (+3: A->D)
 # A starts at 65, and we want the ordinals to be from 0-25
 # everything must be in uppercase
 phrase = phrase.upper()
 # this makes up a list of the words in the phrase
 splitWords = phrase.split()
 output = ""
 for key in range(0,26): 
 # this function will split each word from the phrase
 for ch in splitWords:
 # split the words furthur into letters
 for x in ch:
 number = ((ord(x)-65) + key) % 26
 letter = (chr(number+65))
 # update accumulator variable
 output = output + letter
 # add a space after the word
 output = output + " "
 print "Key", key, ":", output
 main()

• William Gaul: Well first off your indentation for the print statement is off. Unless that's from copying into SO. Secondly, you can do this: print "Key " + key + ": " + output + "\n", notice the spaces and newline added.

Answer 1

If I understand you correctly, you need to reset output each loop, and print during each loop, so change:

output = ""
for key in range(0,26): 
 ## Other stuff
print "Key", key, ":", output

to:

for key in range(0,26): 
 output = ""
 ## Other stuff
 print "Key", key, ":", output

Old result:

Key 25 : MARK NBSL ... KYPI LZQJ

New result:

Key 0 : MARK 
Key 1 : NBSL 
 #etc
Key 24 : KYPI 
Key 25 : LZQJ 

Answer 2

First, in print "Key", key, ":", output, use + instead of , (so that you get proper string concatenation).

You want key and its corresponding output to print with every outer for loop iteration. I think I see why it's not happening at the moment. Hint: is your print statement actually falling under the outer loop right now?

Answer 3

You should take a look at the Input and Output section of the users guide. It goes through several methods of formatting strings. Personally, I use the "old" method still, but since you are learning I would suggest taking a look at the "new" method.

If I wanted to output this prettily with the "old" method, I would do print 'Key %3i: %r' % (key, output). Here the 3i indicates to give three spaces to an integer.