Return a Boolean instead of a string containing True or False in Python

Question

I have a small problem with True or False Boolean.

I have Defined a procedure weekend which takes a string as its input, and returns the Boolean True if 'Saturday' or 'Sunday' and False otherwise.

Here is my weekend function:

def weekend(day):
    if day == 'Saturday' or day == 'Sunday':
        return "True"
    else:
        return "False"

Here is my output:

>>>print weekend('Monday')
False
>>>print weekend('Saturday')
True
>>>print weekend('July')
False

But as you see in my code, I'm returning a string BUT I want to return a Boolean True or False.

How can I do that?

Thanks.

Just get rid of the quotes around "True" / "False".

arshajii
– arshajii

2013-08-15 15:35:42 +00:00
Commented Aug 15, 2013 at 15:35 — arshajii
– arshajii, Commented Aug 15, 2013 at 15:35

Óscar López · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-15 15:39:39Z

7

Try this:

def weekend(day):
    if day == 'Saturday' or day == 'Sunday':
        return True
    else:
        return False

Or this:

def weekend(day):
    return day == 'Saturday' or day == 'Sunday'

Or even simpler:

def weekend(day):
    return day in ('Saturday', 'Sunday')

Anyway: in Python the boolean values are True and False, without quotes - but also know that there exist several falsy values - that is, values that behave exactly like False if used in a condition. For example: "", [], None, {}, 0, ().

edited Aug 15, 2013 at 15:39

answered Aug 15, 2013 at 15:33

Óscar López

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1 Comment

arshajii Over a year ago

And of course 0. is also falsy (not to mention 0j and 0L).

Noel Evans · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-15 15:33:57Z

2

This is the shortest way to write the function and output a boolean

def weekend(day):
    return day == 'Saturday' or day == 'Sunday'

or

def weekend(day):
    return day in ('Saturday', 'Sunday')

answered Aug 15, 2013 at 15:33

Noel Evans

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Comments

Stephan · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-15 15:54:55Z

1

Your problem was using " marks around True, remove those and it will work. Here are some more pythonic ways to write this method:

def weekend(day):
    if day.lower() in ('saturday', 'sunday'):
        return True
    else:
        return False

Using .lower() when checking is a good way to ignore case. You can also use the in statement to see if the string is found in a list of strings

Here is a super short way

def weekend(day):
  return day.lower() in ('saturday', 'sunday')

edited Aug 15, 2013 at 15:54

answered Aug 15, 2013 at 15:49

Stephan

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Comments

Alok Agarwal · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-15 15:35:02Z

0

def weekend(day):
    if day == 'Saturday' or day == 'Sunday':
        return True
    else:
        return False

you are doing return "True" and return "False" which make it a string rather than Boolean

answered Aug 15, 2013 at 15:35

Alok Agarwal

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Comments

Marcellinov · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-12 18:31:15Z

0

If you want to return a Boolean instead of a String just get rid of the quotes '' around True and False.

Try This:

def weekend(day):
    """ Return True if day is Saturday or Sunday otherwise False."""

    return day in ('saturday', 'sunday'):

or as the others before me have said:

def weekend(day):
    """ Return True if day is Saturday or Sunday otherwise False."""

    return day == 'Saturday' or day == 'Sunday'

answered Jul 12, 2015 at 18:31

Marcellinov

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