IDLE syntax error in if statements

Question

IDLE is registering if statements as syntax errors. My code is as follows:

  import random ;\
    print("Welcome to the fortune cookie simulator") ;\
    print("\n\nThe fortune cookie minus the good part..") ;\
    input("\n\n\nPress enter to recieve your fortune!") ;\
    fortune = random.randint(1, 5) ;\
    if fortune==1:  ;\
      print("You will die today") ;\

This isn't python syntax... or rather, I should say, this is a one-liner. — Tritium21
– Tritium21, Commented Sep 28, 2014 at 20:52
Splitting a one-liner across multiple lines.... interesting. — chepner
– chepner, Commented Sep 28, 2014 at 20:53
How can you have an if in the middle of a one-liner when if-blocks are determined by indentation? — khelwood
– khelwood, Commented Sep 28, 2014 at 20:54
If the body of the if statement is itself just one line, you can write the whole thing as one line. — chepner
– chepner, Commented Sep 28, 2014 at 20:56

chepner · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-28 20:54:51Z

1

Since if fortune==1: is not a complete statement, you cannot terminate it with a ;. The correct one-line form of an if statement is simply

if fortune==1: print("...")

Splitting that into two lines, then, is simply using normal Python

if fortune==1:
    print("...")

Why you are trying to fit multiple statements into one logical line is quite another question.

answered Sep 28, 2014 at 20:54

chepner

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2 Comments

Tritium21 Over a year ago

Python is ill-suited for one-liners. Let us not encourage it?

chepner Over a year ago

Oh, I'm not. I'm just trying to point out how two wrongs (using ; to combine two lines, then using `` to split the line into two again) produced one bigger wrong.

Tritium21 · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-28 20:59:43Z

0

You created one big oneliner with your explicit statement separators and line continuations. Its ugly and bug prone to work like that. I am going to assume you are working in python3. In python2, input() expects the user to enter a valid python expression. if you are using python2, use raw_input() instead.

import random
print("Welcome to the fortune cookie simulator")
print("\n\nThe fortune cookie minus the good part..")
input("\n\n\nPress enter to recieve your fortune!")
fortune = random.randint(1, 5)
if fortune == 1:
    print("You will die today")

edited Sep 28, 2014 at 20:59

answered Sep 28, 2014 at 20:54

Tritium21

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