Question

What is wrong with my python code? Mooc 6.189

user_input = int(raw_input('enter integer here: '))

print ' you entered the value', user_input

while abs(user_input) > 0:
abs(user_input) = abs(user_input) - 1

Answer 1

You cannot attribute value to an expression... ie : abs(user_input) is invalid. If you want to take care of negative values, you should probably do something like user_input = abs(user_input) before the loop...

Answer 2

btw, you could just modify abs(user_input) = abs(user_input) - 1 by
user_input = abs(use_input) - 1

but after the first iteration, all abs() operation would be useless, as the number would have been converted to positive at first loop...

Answer 3

So this is a better code?
user_input = int(raw_input('enter integer here: '))

print ' you entered the value', user_input

while abs(user_input) > 0:
if user_input < 0:
user_input = user_input + 1
print user_input
else:
user_input = user_input - 1
print user_input

Answer 4

Sure, much better like this !