Question

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Is there any way to do variable assignments directly inside a while(<here>) loop in Python?

Sorry about such a basic question. I’m trying to learn Python, but really haven’t found an answer to this.

In Python, can I assign a value to a variable in a while or if statement? If so, how?

For example. I had to do this:

line_list = []
while True:
    line = raw_input(">>> ")
    if not line: break
    line_list.append(line)
print line_list

But I’d like to do this:

line_list = []
while line = raw_input(">>> "):
    line_list.append(line)
print line_list

The tutorials I’m looking at don’t mention this one way or another, but this is a common construct in most other languages.

Answer 1

As Frédéric’s answer indicates, it is impossible to assign to a variable an a while or if, however you can accomplish basically the same thing using iter() with the function/sentinel call format:

for line in iter(lambda: raw_input(">>>"), ""):
    line_list.append(line)