🔒 New to programming, I hate my code. How do I improve myself? I know I'm doing so many things wrong

[balmy ocean]

PDFs are built on PS (PostScript) which is really more like a programming language
i have even seen a web server written in postscript that you could send to old networked printers that lacked security and they became a web server

[wind thorn]

Oh, that's why they're dangerous, any limitations though.

[wind thorn]

can you go over trhe boolean list return thing

[balmy ocean]

no, they aren't dangerous because of that, it's just that they are so complex so that they can [more easily] cause bugs in the software that reads them and insert more or less any instructions into that computer

[balmy ocean]

you might want to have your function start with an empty collection and then add to that collection after each check of a resource, then return the whole collection when each resource has been checked

[pale kayak]

fyi its already a huge win under ur belt to make this function like this

[balmy ocean]

but i'm not even sure if this is the way i would personally build it, but then again, i don't have all the background information for this thread, because it was way to long to read through it all when i first looked at it

[pale kayak]

tbh i forgot why i wanted to return a list of booleans as well

[tired sundial]

wow, this forum is still open ^.^

a few things to note,
A) you don't actually use any of the feedback coming from compare_resources(). perhaps have it print the statments, and return True/False instead.

a general outline (not actual code) –

def compare_resources(...):
   if water < resource[water]:
      print("Not enough water")
      return False
   
   if coffee < resources[coffee]:
      ...
      return False

   print("Resources found.")
   return True

interacting with it like this -

if compare_resources(...) is not True:
   print("Missing Resources for Coffee.")
   break  # return 

if question == "off":
   ...

B) I'd also suggest to make one or a few functions that handle all the money logic, like grabbing the total from the user, subtracting and keeping count.

C) additionally, it may be a nice time to move onto classes.
for example, a class to deal and handle all the resources.
having a builtin report & comparison functions.

a quick example (with dataclass) –

@dataclass
class Resources:
   water: int
   milk: int
   coffee: int

   def report(self):
      return f"""
      ==== Report ====
      water:  {self.water:,}ml
      milk:   {self.milk:,}ml
      coffee: {self.coffee:,}g
      ================
      """.strip("\n")

   def has_enough(self, other) -> bool:
      ...

   def __str__(self):
      return self.report()

res = Resources(15, 7, 12)

print(res)  # res.report()

[pale kayak]

oh hi classes

surprise OOP bomb

[tired sundial]

[pale kayak]

lets go with this kind of function, alright ?

if we need a boolean list later on we can come back to this

[wind thorn]

if there's something better we can do it

[pale kayak]

def greater_than_five(x, y):
    return [x > 5, y > 5]

a boolean list return would be for something like this function, since it needs to return 2 booleans but return is a single statement

[pale kayak]

there is some deduplication of code we can do but really, this way works so up to u if u want to improve it or just move on with doing coffee_machine part

[wind thorn]

Guys, another big problem I have is how to manipulate this to move them into another function and use it.

[wind thorn]

coffee_machine

[pale kayak]

5. Process coins. 
a. If there are sufficient resources to make the drink selected, then the program should 
prompt the user to insert coins.
b. Remember that quarters = $0.25, dimes = $0.10, nickles = $0.05, pennies = $0.01 
c. Calculate the monetary value of the coins inserted. E.g. 1 quarter, 2 dimes, 1 nickel, 2 
pennies = 0.25 + 0.1 x 2 + 0.05 + 0.01 x 2 = $0.52 

so first off

lets do 5a

we already made compare_resources

now is time to use it

[wind thorn]

if compare_resources == TRUE and money == 2.5:
return Here is your espresso. Enjoy!

[pale kayak]

whats the 2.5

[wind thorn]

the requirement to make the coffee

[balmy ocean]

to move things out to separate functions you would use a technique called "extraction" where you take a block of code or some logic and move it to it's own function and then call it from the same place where that code was originally used

[pale kayak]

isnt that data already encoded in our MENU dictionary

go grab it from there instead of hardcoding it

[wind thorn]

yeah stop hardcoddding srtuff

don't hardcode stuff if you have the data

Should we make a new function also?

[pale kayak]

even if u have data usually hardcoded stuff is handled via constants

[wind thorn]

transaction_successful

this right?

[wind thorn]

What do you mean via constants? What are the constants?

[pale kayak]

a sucessful transaction really only needs that 1 if check u sent

[pale kayak]

constants is a name we give to variables that u shouldnt change value of

in python its a convention more than a feature

[wind thorn]

oh

[balmy ocean]

hardcoding stuff like that is called "magic values" (which is something you don't want in your code) and you don't want that, because later on it will be hard to understand what that value is really doing there and also hard to change if the same value is used multiple times through out the code

[pale kayak]

# constants
NUMBER = 5

# variables
x = 4

# hardcoded value check but its under a constant 
if x > NUMBER:
    print(x)

[pale kayak]

when i read magic values there were so many shivers sent down my spine from terraria modding days

its not fun reading decompiled C# code man

i think craziest thing i saw was var_1337 or watever the name

there was so many

[wind thorn]

You can code out Terraria mods; that's crazy.

[tired sundial]

[pale kayak]

i can also code down java minecraft mods, i sent this 1 modpack community into a frenzy for months cause when PR i made was accepted there was no bugs but then when players were playing there were a few issues that ye werent fun

[wind thorn]

4 problems

[pale kayak]

there is 1 major issue that needs solved first

5. Process coins. 
a. If there are sufficient resources to make the drink selected, then the program should 
prompt the user to insert coins.
b. Remember that quarters = $0.25, dimes = $0.10, nickles = $0.05, pennies = $0.01 
c. Calculate the monetary value of the coins inserted. E.g. 1 quarter, 2 dimes, 1 nickel, 2 
pennies = 0.25 + 0.1 x 2 + 0.05 + 0.01 x 2 = $0.52 

[wind thorn]

do i make money gobal

[tired sundial]

no... the numbers...
agk_4760, var_24 were at every fucking corner. sometimes people even used them just out of spite 💀

[pale kayak]

u also did terraria modding ? lmfao

[pale kayak]

@wind thorn

If there are sufficient resources to make the drink selected, then the program should prompt the user to insert coins.

u shouldnt be checking money at same time as calling compare_resources

[wind thorn]

why

[pale kayak]

cause of instructions

if there is sufficient resources, then prompt user to insert coins

u wouldnt know about their money at time of resource checking

[wind thorn]

So it's redundant, right?

Why is there a yellow line under "none"? Can't I use "none" as a placeholder for my function until I can come up with something?

[pale kayak]

rather its a major logic flaw

how u gonna check their money if u dont know how much money they have

[umbral pike]

Use pass instead

[wind thorn]

Ty, but why pass and not none? Aren't they the same thing?

[wind thorn]

yeah

[wind thorn]

why do i keep coding out major flaws

[umbral pike]

pass does nothing, None is an expression.

[tired sundial]

nope. though there's the keyword pass that can be used as a placeholder.

[wind thorn]

So "pass" is a placeholder, and "none" is an expression. What do you mean by "expression"?

[pale kayak]

cause u a beginner, thats what beginners do

they set water on fire

[wind thorn]

that's my code

rather its a major logic flaw
how u gonna check their money if u dont know how much money they have

i don't know how to forward

[umbral pike]

An expression is a value, and values shouldn't be on their own. E.g. you could also just write 5 there. It would complain the same way.

[pale kayak]

the arrow pointing to the right

the one pointing to the left is reply

[balmy ocean]

calling None returns a value of None, a value you then don't use, hence the warning

[wind thorn]

Um, I need to code something out to check how much money they have using my money variable, but my money variable can't get referenced because of the scope.

[umbral pike]

(it complains because you don't do anything with the value, e.g. assigning it somewhere)

[pale kayak]

delete all the money related stuff, we making a handle_transactions function alright ?

[wind thorn]

k

[balmy ocean]

or rather move it out of there instead of deleting it

[wind thorn]

But if I do that, then we need to change the way we account for money.

[pale kayak]

i find it easier to just delete then rewrite rather than confusing them with moving blocks of code up and down like a mad rollercoaster

[wind thorn]

them 🙁

hhhhhh

[pale kayak]

due to instructions we already need to change it

we need to check if we got enough resources for coffee we making before we input any money amount

those the instructions

[wind thorn]

what's the fast way to add # to many lines of code

[pale kayak]

select all lines u want to comment then ctrl /

[latent flame]

ctrl +/

[wind thorn]

cool

[latent flame]

you can select part of the line and it will still work

[wind thorn]

k

[tired sundial]

Python is generally split to 2 tokens, statments and expressions.

statments are kinda like complete sentences, that perform actions.
expressions are like parts of a sentence. thing that yield a result.

it gets more complicated than this, obviously. it's well defined for each keyword & special characters in the langauge.

https://docs.python.org/3/reference/simple_stmts.html

https://docs.python.org/3/reference/expressions.html#grammar-token-python-grammar-starred_expression

from an old discussion -
#python-discussion message

[latent flame]

use the same shortcut to uncomment

[wind thorn]

Ooooooh, so that's why passing a statement does not complain because it's complete, while none of the expressions needs something else.

@pale kayak so what should i put inside handle_transactions

we need a variable for money

[pale kayak]

first of all, call compare_resources

if it returns true then u can go ahead and prompt user for their coins like u were doing

[pale kayak]

yes we do

[wind thorn]

it needs a user_input

should i use coffee_machine or my own

[pale kayak]

handle_transacations needs the user input

not anything else

so it should go inside it

[pale kayak]

all coffee_machine needs to do is ask user what coffee they want then shove that answer into handle_transactions

that simple

[wind thorn]

So coffee_machine then compare_resources then handle_transactions

[pale kayak]

no need for compare_resources since handle_transcations is already calling it

[wind thorn]

compare_resources i should delete it?

[pale kayak]

no no no

we only need to call compare_resources right before we handle a transacation

so we either do it inside the function

or in coffee_machine right before we call handle_transcation

speaking of compare_resources

u back to retuning strings

[wind thorn]

yeah

[pale kayak]

u should be returning booleans, would make ur life a whole lot easier

[wind thorn]

i didn't'change it

let me do that

but how do i make the code reachable

cause when i removed the inputs

[pale kayak]

well dont do that

its still dependent on wat user choose isnt it

we shouldnt be reading the global variable tho

pass whatever the user inputted into it

[pale kayak]

cool that should work near perfectly

[balmy ocean]

just a quick question
did you ever post the full instructions/requirements for the task somewhere?
because this looks like it's just a small part of it

[wind thorn]

i have pdf

[pale kayak]

its in a pdf so he cant

[balmy ocean]

i see

[pale kayak]

best he could do ig is ctrl c entire pdf and ctrl v and send that .txt

but that might contain sensitive information

so 🤷

[balmy ocean]

yeah

[wind thorn]

1. Prompt user by asking “
   What would you like? (espresso/latte/cappuccino):​”
   a. Check the user’s input to decide what to do next.
   b. The prompt should show every time action has completed, e.g. once the drink is
   dispensed. The prompt should show again to serve the next customer.
2. Turn off the Coffee Machine by entering “
   off​” to the prompt.
   a. For maintainers of the coffee machine, they can use “off” as the secret word to turn off
   the machine. Your code should end execution when this happens.
3. Print report.
   a. When the user enters “report” to the prompt, a report should be generated that shows
   the current resource values. e.g.
   Water: 100ml
   Milk: 50ml
   Coffee: 76g
   Money: $2.5
4. Check resources sufficient?
   a. When the user chooses a drink, the program should check if there are enough
   resources to make that drink.
   b. E.g. if Latte requires 200ml water but there is only 100ml left in the machine. It should
   not continue to make the drink but print: “​Sorry there is not enough water.​”
   c. The same should happen if another resource is depleted, e.g. milk or coffee.

5. Process coins.
   a. If there are sufficient resources to make the drink selected, then the program should
   prompt the user to insert coins.
   b. Remember that quarters = $0.25, dimes = $0.10, nickles = $0.05, pennies = $0.01
   c. Calculate the monetary value of the coins inserted. E.g. 1 quarter, 2 dimes, 1 nickel, 2
   pennies = 0.25 + 0.1 x 2 + 0.05 + 0.01 x 2 = $0.52
6. Check transaction successful?
   a. Check that the user has inserted enough money to purchase the drink they selected.
   E.g Latte cost $2.50, but they only inserted $0.52 then after counting the coins the
   program should say “​Sorry that's not enough money. Money refunded.​”.
   b. But if the user has inserted enough money, then the cost of the drink gets added to the
   machine as the profit and this will be reflected the next time “report” is triggered. E.g.
   Water: 100ml
   Milk: 50ml
   Coffee: 76g
   Money: $2.5
   c. If the user has inserted too much money, the machine should offer change.
   E.g. “Here is $2.45 dollars in change.” The change should be rounded to 2 decimal
   places.
7. Make Coffee.
   a. If the transaction is successful and there are enough resources to make the drink the
   user selected, then the ingredients to make the drink should be deducted from the
   coffee machine resources.
   E.g. report before purchasing latte:
   Water: 300ml
   Milk: 200ml
   Coffee: 100g
   Money: $0
   Report after purchasing latte:
   Water: 100ml
   Milk: 50ml
   Coffee: 76g
   Money: $2.5
   b. Once all resources have been deducted, tell the user “Here is your latte. Enjoy!”. If
   latte was their choice of drink.

[pale kayak]

ah see, 4b is the kicker

[wind thorn]

yeah printing

[pale kayak]

i knew the boolean lists was needed for something

@balmy ocean got any better idea than boolean list for that part ?

[wind thorn]

we can do the boolean lists or just print than return true or false

[pale kayak]

ig could just not early return but um

[pale kayak]

issue with that approach is 4c

if u print not enough water then return its not gonna check for coffee or milk

because return ends function execution

[wind thorn]

than we need a for loop right?

[pale kayak]

4c makes it so u need to print all u out of

[pale kayak]

wat for

[wind thorn]

nah it won't work i think its making problems than solving them ( if user_input == "latte":
if resources["water"] < MENU["latte"]["ingredients"]["water"]:
return False)

I was thinking maybe adding a for loop in the middle of this to check the other stuff.

[pale kayak]

How about this: make a boolean variable then only return that once at very end

[balmy ocean]

i think @tired sundial had a good suggestion in "A)" of #1415946194533744710 message

because with a boolean list you need to know which element position refers which which resource and do more tests against that list again

[pale kayak]

Issue is that 4c makes it so u need to print all thats lacking for it

Not just 1st thing u found thats put

Ig just dont early return

[balmy ocean]

depends on how you read it
you could read it as if it should print for each missing resource every time
but you can also read it as it should check each resource and print whatever resource is missing

[pale kayak]

Ah yes the ambiguity of english

Good old friend

[wind thorn]

So just return True if everything else is there; if not, then print everything we don't have and refund the money.

[pale kayak]

Why refund

[balmy ocean]

yeah, most human languages really, that's why code is so much better, when it's correct and error free 😁 😉

[pale kayak]

Again we calling compare resources before we ever take user input for any coins

[wind thorn]

because we didn't make the coffee

[pale kayak]

There is no concept of money at this stage

[wind thorn]

yeah

[balmy ocean]

we have not asked the user for any money at this point, that comes after we know if the resources in the machine is enough to make the type of coffee they asked for

[wind thorn]

@past nest are you watching?

[wind thorn]

Yup, I know. I was talking about the last steps.

Um, so how do I do this? Print them all out.

Maybe a while loop and a list outside that's trying to collect the infinity stones, and if you have them all, it breaks and prints them all out one by one.

@pale kayak what do you think?

[pale kayak]

Shouldnt need any loops for this but go ahead and try

If it works it works

[wind thorn]

no it's not working

[pale kayak]

can u send current compare_resources here

[pale kayak]

as text

[wind thorn]

def compare_resources(user_input):
if user_input == "espresso":
if resources["water"] < MENU["espresso"]["ingredients"]["water"]:
return False
if resources["coffee"] < MENU["espresso"]["ingredients"]["coffee"]:
return False
return True
if user_input == "latte":
if resources["water"] < MENU["latte"]["ingredients"]["water"]:
return False
if resources["coffee"] < MENU["latte"]["ingredients"]["coffee"]:
return False
if resources["milk"] < MENU["latte"]["ingredients"]["milk"]:
return False
return True
if user_input == "cappuccino":
if resources["water"] < MENU["cappuccino"]["ingredients"]["water"]:
return False
if resources["coffee"] < MENU["cappuccino"]["ingredients"]["coffee"]:
return False
if resources["milk"] < MENU["cappuccino"]["ingredients"]["milk"]:
return False
return True

[lofty stirrup]

Hey @wind thorn!

Please edit your message to use a code block

```py
print('Hello, world!')
```

This will result in the following:

print('Hello, world!')```

[pale kayak]

def compare_resources(user_input):
    if user_input == "espresso":
       if resources["water"] < MENU["espresso"]["ingredients"]["water"]:
            return False
       if resources["coffee"] < MENU["espresso"]["ingredients"]["coffee"]:
            return False
       return True

lets focus on espresso bit for now

so we want to print when we out of a resource for all resources

the simple solution would be adding print to those resource check if statements

right ?

[wind thorn]

yeah

but i couldn't think of that

[pale kayak]

u did think of that we just said it didnt work like several times

but ignoring the reason it doesnt work

lets move forward

[pale kayak]

try adding the prints to the espresso block up here

[wind thorn]

print all of it

if it's false? right

[wind thorn]

where do i put the prints i'm not sure

[pale kayak]

inside the water check, print water is not enough

[wind thorn]

def compare_resources(user_input):
if user_input == "espresso":
if resources["water"] < MENU["espresso"]["ingredients"]["water"] and print("Sorry there is not enough water."):
return False
if resources["coffee"] < MENU["espresso"]["ingredients"]["coffee"]:
return False
return True

[lofty stirrup]

Hey @wind thorn!

Please edit your message to use a code block

```py
print('Hello, world!')
```

This will result in the following:

print('Hello, world!')```

[pale kayak]

thats not inside the water check

thats modifying the water check

[wind thorn]

def compare_resources(user_input):
if user_input == "espresso":
if resources["water"] < MENU["espresso"]["ingredients"]["water"]:
print("Sorry there is not enough water.")
return False

[pale kayak]

there we go

now do same for coffee

[wind thorn]

def compare_resources(user_input):
if user_input == "espresso":
if resources["water"] < MENU["espresso"]["ingredients"]["water"]:
print("Sorry there is not enough water.")
return False
if resources["coffee"] < MENU["espresso"]["ingredients"]["coffee"]:
print("Sorry there is not enough coffee.")
return False
return True

But won't it return false?

[pale kayak]

but wat

[wind thorn]

shouldn't we remove the return false

[pale kayak]

indeed, with return there it will stop function execution

but if just simply remove line, how would function know that it needs to return false due to insufficient water/coffee/milk

[wind thorn]

it wouldn't know

[latent flame]

Can I help 🙂

[wind thorn]

yes

[wind thorn]

,,,,,,,

[pale kayak]

so how to fix it

if only we could save this information somewhere for function to use it later

[latent flame]

and the code?

[wind thorn]

https://paste.pythondiscord.com/4L4Q

[wind thorn]

um

so yeah we use a list

[pale kayak]

sure thats one way

[latent flame]

Is that your current code? Can I point some of its problems out or are they already fixed?

[wind thorn]

current code

[latent flame]

Ok

[wind thorn]

wait so i need a list

[latent flame]

What are you discussing currently?

[wind thorn]

def compare_resources(user_input):
if user_input == "espresso":
if resources["water"] < MENU["espresso"]["ingredients"]["water"]:
print("Sorry there is not enough water.")
return False
if resources["coffee"] < MENU["espresso"]["ingredients"]["coffee"]:
print("Sorry there is not enough coffee.")
return False
return True

[lofty stirrup]

Hey @wind thorn!

Please edit your message to use a code block

```py
print('Hello, world!')
```

This will result in the following:

print('Hello, world!')```

[wind thorn]

improving this

[latent flame]

Ok, I see

you have 2 versions of this in your code actually

[wind thorn]

we need it to print out b. E.g. if Latte requires 200ml water but there is only 100ml left in the machine. It should
not continue to make the drink but print: “​Sorry there is not enough water.​”
c. The same should happen if another resource is depleted, e.g. milk or coffee.

[latent flame]

You can make a loop

[latent flame]

I get it

[pale kayak]

tl;dr need to print all resources that are insufficient

but current code works by returning early

[latent flame]

Aha

Then if you go with a loop then you have to store insufficient resources somewhere

A list probably

[wind thorn]

my brain has turned off

i think i need a break

[pale kayak]

always good to get a break

[wind thorn]

k ill be back within 30-60mins will you still be here?

[pale kayak]

prob

[wind thorn]

nice how don't you get tried haven't you been here with me for the past 6 hours?

[pale kayak]

close to 7

[wind thorn]

have you just been looking at the same code or are you also coding something out

[pale kayak]

im multitasking sorta of kinda

but ye its been fun doing this

[wind thorn]

🙂 that's nice

If I were not here, I could easily code it out, or are you just going slow because of me?

ty saad

ill back be back later

[pale kayak]

always have to match pace of OP yes

althought sometimes i go too slow but eh

[latent flame]

for what?

[pale kayak]

better than too fast

[wind thorn]

for wanting to help

[wind thorn]

of course thank you Dagger

[lofty stirrup]

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