Loop in Python not working

Question

I'm having trouble getting a while loop to work here. What I would like to do is have the program jump back to "please enter the word you with to translate" once it runs and provides the output.

When I have used while true and continue in what I believe are the proper places, it simply continues to print the output. of the word I'm translating. Hope that makes sense.

Listed below is the code I have working. The second chunk is where I add the while loop and run into issues.

def silly_alpha():
 print("Looks like we're going with the Impossible alphabet.")
 word_trans = input('Please enter the word you wish to translate: ')
 if word_trans.isalpha():
 for letter in word_trans:
 print(impossible.get(letter.lower()), end=' ')
 else:
 print("There's no numbers in words. Try that again.")

This is the problematic code

def silly_alpha():
 print("Looks like we're going with the Impossible alphabet.")
 while True:
 word_trans = input('Please enter the word you wish to translate: ')
 if word_trans.isalpha():
 for letter in word_trans:
 print(impossible.get(letter.lower()), end=' ')
 continue
 else:
 print("There's no numbers in words. Try that again.")
 continue

• ettanany: You do not need to use continue at all.
• polku: What do you think continue do ?
• Klaus D.: The continue will continue with the most inner block. The for iteration in the if case and the while in the else case.
• Eduard: Mistook continue for break. Maybe break is what OP is looking for?

Answer 1

To have it repeat the loop, and accept a new word to translate, you simply need to remove those continue statements. I tested this in IDLE and it works just fine.

def silly_alpha():
 print("Looks like we're going with the Impossible alphabet.")
 while True:
 word_trans = input('Please enter the word you wish to translate: ')
 if word_trans.isalpha():
 for letter in word_trans:
 print(impossible.get(letter.lower()), end=' ')
 else:
 print("There's no numbers in words. Try that again.")

However, you now have an infinite loop. You may want to consider some way of allowing the user to enter a command that will terminate the loop. Perhaps something like:

def silly_alpha():
 print("Looks like we're going with the Impossible alphabet.")
 while True:
 word_trans = input('Please enter the word you wish to translate, "x" to cancel: ')
 if word_trans == 'x':
 print('Exiting translation...')
 break
 elif word_trans.isalpha():
 for letter in word_trans:
 print(impossible.get(letter.lower()), end=' ')
 else:
 print("There's no numbers in words. Try that again.")

• hozayjgarseeya: ahhhh this makes sense and is working. Thank you so much for the input!
• hozayjgarseeya: while I do see the difference and see what has changed. Can you explain why place while True before word_trans makes the difference? When placed after it causes this looping issue, but when place before, it works as expected.
• Philipp: You repeatedly want to ask for an input, so each time the loop starts again you want to be able to enter something new, otherwise you can assign word_trans once and then it just loops for the same word_trans over and over again.
• hozayjgarseeya: Got it, that makes perfect sense and now it seems like a dumb question. Thanks so much for the answer and help with understanding that.

Answer 2

continue applies to the closest loop and allow to skip next instructions in this loop.

So your first continue applies to for, as it s the last instruction of the loop, it as no effect.

You second continue applies to while True, as it s the last instruction of the loop, it as no effect.

What you are looking for is break which terminates the closest loop. In your case, the while True I suppose.

So remove the first continue and replace the second by a break.