Syntax help

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January 19th, 2013, 02:24 PM

pr0x1mity

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Syntax help

Okay I'm learning to program in Python. I don't have previous programming experience. I'm not a math guy, so could you please recommend me some good books to learn math.

Why is this invalid:

>>> zip_code = 02492
SyntaxError: invalid token

Why is this valid:

>>> zip_code = 02132
>>> zip_code
1114

I'm getting a semantic error :/

It has something to do with the way numbers are multiplied/divided I think.

>>> 01
1
>>>010
8
>>> 0100
64
>>> 01000
512
>>> 010000
4096

January 19th, 2013, 04:05 PM

b49P23TIvg

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Looks like a leading 0 digit indicates octal notation.

Base 8.

Use strings for zip codes

PennPlaza = '10001'

ooops, bad example.

zip = '01234'

# better

Comments on this post

pr0x1mity agrees: Very useful and really helpful

__________________
[code]Code tags[/code] are essential for python code!

January 19th, 2013, 04:28 PM

pr0x1mity

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Thanks a lot! What's a good base 8 book that I could learn from?

January 19th, 2013, 05:54 PM

Nyktos

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As a general rule, if you aren't going to do math on something, don't treat it as a number, even if it is composed to numerals.

(Incidentally, treating numbers with a leading 0 as octal was eliminated in Python 3.)

Comments on this post

pr0x1mity agrees: Gave general helpful guidelines to beginning programmers

Dietrich agrees: a good reminder

January 19th, 2013, 08:38 PM

b49P23TIvg

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I like base 0.

Code:

   0b1 0b5 0ba 0bz 0b85manyzeros93472  NB. base 0
1 5 10 35 2

   0.1b345   NB. base 0.1
5.43

   _3b123    NB. base negative 3
6

   (3*(-3)^0) + (2*(-3)^1) + (1*(-3)^2)
6

   4r3p1  NB. 4 pi over 3
4.18879

www.jsoftware.com

Last edited by b49P23TIvg : January 19th, 2013 at 08:43 PM.

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