Question

I’m trying to make a program that will calculate valve clearances. This is the first program I have ever made, so I am muddling my way through it. Now, here’s what I’ve got so far. If I enter a clearance that is out of range, it prints “Right Intake is OUT OF RANGE”, like it’s supposed to. But if it’s IN range, then it fills my screen with “Right Intake is in range” over and over and over again, until I kill it. What am I missing?

#Clearance calculator
#clearances are in clearances.txt

targets = open("clearances.txt", "r")
lines = targets.readlines()   #get target clearances from file

in_min_target = float(lines[2])     #minimum intake clearance
in_max_target = float(lines[4])     #maximum intake clearance

ex_min_target = float(lines[8])    #miminum exhaust clearances
ex_max_target = float(lines[10])   #maximum exhaust clearances
targets.close

target_intake = (in_min_target + in_max_target) / 2     #find the ideal intake
target_exhaust = (ex_min_target + ex_max_target) / 2    #find the ideal exhaust

print "Intake Min: ", in_min_target
print "Intake Max: ", in_max_target
print "Exhaust Min: ", ex_min_target
print "Exhaust Max: ", ex_max_target
print """Target intake: %r
Target Exhaust: %r""" % (target_intake, target_exhaust)

print""
print "Enter current RIGHT side Intake clearance"
cur_r_in = float(raw_input(">"))
print ""
print "Enter current RIGHT side Exhaust clearance"
cur_r_ex = float(raw_input(">"))
print ""
print "Enter current LEFT side Intake clearance"
cur_l_in = float(raw_input(">"))
print ""
print "Enter current LEFT side Exhaust clearance"
cur_l_ex = float(raw_input(">"))

target=5

def in_range(min, max, cur, valve, target):
    while min <= cur <= max:
        print "%r is in range." % valve
    target=1
else:
    print "%r is OUT OF RANGE." %valve
    target=0
return target

def ex_range(min, max, cur, valve, target):
if min <= cur <= max:
    print "%r is in range." % valve
    target=1
else:
    print "%r is OUT OF RANGE." %valve
    target=0


valve = "Right Intake"
print in_range(in_min_target, in_max_target, cur_r_in, valve, target)

print ""

valve = "Right Exhaust"
print ex_range(ex_min_target, ex_max_target, cur_r_ex, valve, target)

print ""

valve = "Left Intake"
print in_range(in_min_target, in_max_target, cur_l_in, valve, target)

print ""

valve = "Left Exhaust"
print ex_range(ex_min_target, ex_max_target, cur_l_ex, valve, target)

Answer 1

You’re telling it to keep looping and printing while it is in range:

while min <= cur <= max:
    print "%r is in range." % valve

I suspect you want an if statement:

if min <= cur <= max:
    print "%r is in range." % valve