Re: Newbie Question about sequence multiplication

Scott wrote:
Alright, so I've been trying to teach myself Python which, when compared to
my attempt to learn C++, is going pretty well.
But I've come across an issue that I can't figure out, so I figured I'd ask
the pro's.

Now it looks pretty weird in this format but it was copied exactly from IDLE

*****code follows*******

#What this program is suppose to do is print a sentence centered in a box

sentence = raw_input('Sentence: ')

screen_width = 80
text_width = len(sentence)
box_width = text_width + 6
left_margin = (screen_width - box_width) // 2

print
print ' ' * left_margin + '+' + '-' * (box_width-2) + '+'
print ' ' * left_margin + '| ' + ' ' * text_width + ' |'
print ' ' * left_margin + '| ' + ' ' sentence + ' |'

^
There's a plus sign missing just here ..|

print ' ' * left_margin + '| ' + ' ' * text_width + ' |'
print ' ' * left_margin + '+' + '-' * (box_width-2) + ' |'
print

****end code****

Now that, even though copied straight from "Beginning Python: From Novice to
Professional", returns :
There's an error in your program: invalid syntax

How on Earth are you running these programs? That doesn't look like a compiler error message!

with the word sentence highlighted (not the sentence when I'm defining the
name, the one in......uhm....the body of the code)


Now if i put * before sentence as it is with the rest of the variables, it
actually gets to the point where it asks me for the sentence, but after
inputting my sentence I receive:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "D:/Programming/Python/sequence string multiplication example", line
16, in <module>
print ' ' * left_margin + '| ' + ' ' * sentence + ' |'
TypeError: can't multiply sequence by non-int of type 'str'

The plus sign I've indicated adds (concatenates) the sentence you've typed in to the other strings you are using.

Why can't I get it to do what it's supposed to do? What am I
missing/misunderstanding?
Very simply all its supposed to do is something like this (now bear with me
formating might distort this a bit lol)
+------------------------------------+
| |
| Like This |
| |
+------------------------------------+

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Good luck!

regards
Steve
--
Steve Holden +44 150 684 7255 +1 800 494 3119
Holden Web LLC/Ltd http://www.holdenweb.com
Skype: holdenweb http://del.icio.us/steve.holden
Recent Ramblings http://holdenweb.blogspot.com

.

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