I'm just on the first problem set (0) and have a question that is probably silly. I was having trouble adding the space between the last name variable and the birth date variable. My solution was to create a variable just for the space which I'm assuming is not the most efficient way to do this. What would be the most concise way to write this?

Question

I'm just on the first problem set (0) and have a question that is probably silly.  I was having trouble adding the space between the last name variable and the birth date variable.  My solution was to create a variable just for the space which I'm assuming is not the most efficient way to do this.  What would be the most concise way to write this?

e.mccormick · Answer

Try this code and see what you get:

a = "hi"
b = "there"
print (a + " " + b)

The principal can be applied in most languages.

anonymous · Answer

When I type out that code the space appears.  But I cannot get the space to appear when doing the exercise.  This is what I have -

birthday = raw_input ('Enter your date of birth:')
name = raw_input ('Enter your last name:')
print (name + "" + birthday) 

and it prints both inputs with no space

e.mccormick · Answer

I do not see a space between your quotes.

anonymous · Answer

Got it! So silly, thank you!

e.mccormick · Answer

The same can be done with any sort of string.  Anther place this is useful is for things like:

tires = int(raw_input("Tires are $200 each.  How many does the customer need? "))
total = float((tires * 200.0 * 1.085)
print("With tax the total price is " + total)

Now, you would normally do some rounding and sother stuff, but I am just showing where "adding" a string is useful.

anonymous · Answer

This is very useful information, thank you for your help :)

rsmith6559 · Answer

In Python, if two  parts of a print statement are separated by a comma, Python will insert a space:
>>> print "Hello", "World"
Hello World

Just another way.

e.mccormick · Answer

rsmith6559, that is not always true.  In some versions it will also print it out as a tuple when you do that... which is part of why 3.x changed it to a function.

anonymous · Answer

e.mccormick, would you consider this answer to be correct as well? I took a slightly different approach, and the results are what I wanted them to be in this particular case. Do you see problems that might arise as we move into more complicated programming?

x=raw_input('Enter your date of birth:')
y=raw_input('Enter your last name:')
print y, x

e.mccormick · Answer

You are just using what this version of the language allows you to do, which is fine.

anonymous · Answer

i enjoy you guys. I'm really learning from you as if I have always been a computer science student. just through understanding lecture2 ( core element pf programming). but there seem to be a little problem. what does it mean when you try to execute an assignment and a part is highligted preventing you from printing?