Question

I have recently decided to learn basic programming, and am using an MIT OpenCourseware class to learn in Python. One of the assignments is to create a program that generates the 1000th prime number starting from 0. One of my first solutions is as follows:

oddList = []
for odd in range(3, 10000):
if odd % 2 != 0:
    oddList.append(odd)
else:
    continue


primeCount = 3
loopHolder = True
while loopHolder == True:

for possiblePrime in oddList:
    if primeCount == 1000:
        print possiblePrime
        loopHolder = False
    from math import *
    limit = int(math.sqrt(possiblePrime)

    for primeTest in range(2, limit):
            testCount = 0
            if possiblePrime % primeTest == 0:
                testCount = testCount + 1
                primeCount = primeCount                
            else:
                continue
            if testCount > 0:
                primeCount = primeCount
                break
            else:
                primeCount = primeCount + 1
                break

However, when I run it, I get a syntax error at
“for primeTest in range(2, limit):” and python is highlighting the colon specifically. I realize the error is probably a result of a syntax error somewhere else, but I can’t find it. Could someone point out where my error is?

PS: Help with the semantics of the code is not needed, though appreciated.

Answer 1

You have “while loopHolder == True:” without an indented block after it. You should probably write this as “while loopHolder:”, as the == True part isn’t required. I would also avoid doing the import within the loop. Import statements are usually at the top of the file, unless you need it to be somewhere else. You also don’t have a closing bracket after “limit = int(math.sqrt(possiblePrime)”.