From Lab #1: Can someone explain how you would test if it's an integer or a list? In the example below, It keeps giving errors stating that ("other" is not a list), because it's an integer.

class Polynomial:
def __init__(self, coefficients):
self.coeffs = coefficients
def mul(self, other):
newcoeffs = []

if len(other) == 1:
for n in range(len(self.coeffs)):
newcoeffs.append(self.coeffs[i] * other)
return newcoeffs

Question

From Lab #1: Can someone explain how you would test if it's an integer or a list?  In the example below, It keeps giving errors stating that ("other" is not a list), because it's an integer.

class Polynomial:
	def __init__(self, coefficients):
		self.coeffs = coefficients
	def mul(self, other):
		newcoeffs = []

		if len(other) == 1:
			for n in range(len(self.coeffs)):
				newcoeffs.append(self.coeffs[i] * other)
			return newcoeffs

anonymous · Answer

It's pretty easy to check types in python.  The built-in command, type() will spit out the type.

So if you want to input a list... you could do something like "if type(other) == list", etc.

anonymous · Answer

One thing you could try with your current setup popping the following immediately before your if statement.

if type(other) != list: other = [other]

Basically, if you're not giving it a list, it'll turn it into a 1-element list and then check your if statement how you might want it to.  Might not be your golden ticket, but it's definitely the next step I'd make in debugging.