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I'm trying to implement a simple maths game where the user is given random numbers and operators then they have to work out the answer, I found sources on the internet that suggested using the operator module, which is why i used it, if there is a more efficient/ easier way of achieving this I am very open for interpretation.

Essentially i am trying to remove this horrible <built-in function add> and swap it to be more user friendly by saying '+' or 'add', something along those lines but i keep getting the error 'TypeError: 'bool' object is not callable - python', i really dont know what this means, i am new to python and am very confused.

 from operator import add, sub, mul, floordiv

 operators = (add == str("add"), sub == str("subtract"), mul == str("multiply"), floordiv == str("divide"))
 operator = random.choice(operators)
 answer = operator(number1, number2)
 question = print("What is ", number1, operator, number2, "?")
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  • You should change your operators tuple to a dictionary as shown in this post Commented Nov 25, 2014 at 13:47
  • Not sure why you guys are downvoting this. Let the OP work out a problem definition. :) We're here to help people learn, right? We can also help them learn to ask questions, also in the space they don't really grasp yet. Commented Nov 25, 2014 at 13:50
  • Josh, can you also write out in words what you are trying to achieve? Not really clear where you are heading :) If you're trying to make a simple math game, you don't need the operator module at all. Commented Nov 25, 2014 at 13:53
  • essentially it is a simple maths game where the user is given random numbers and operators then they have to work out the answer, I found sources on the internet that suggested using the operator module, which is why i used it, if there is a more efficient/ easier way of achieving this I am very open for interpretation. sorry for the poor clarity of the question Commented Nov 25, 2014 at 13:55
  • @JoshHughes: moved your comment to the answer for clarity sake. Commented Nov 25, 2014 at 13:59

4 Answers 4

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2

You want two seperate things: the string representation of the operator and the operator itself. You can use dictionary to store the function and the corresponding string representation:

from operator import add, sub, mul, floordiv
import random

number1 = 9
number2 = 3

operators = {'+':add, '-':sub, '*':mul, '/':floordiv}
operator_name = random.choice(operators.keys())
op = operators[operator_name]
answer = op(number1, number2)
question = "What is {}{}{}?".format(number1, operator_name, number2)
print question
print answer
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Comments

2

What you get as a result of the first line is

operators = (False, False, False, False, False)

or something in those lines.

Then you are trying to call a boolean that gets you the exception you have.

add == str("add") will evaluate to False, since you're trying to compare a function to a string.

I'm assuming you are trying to implement a simple math game, hence instead of using operator, which are in fact math operation functions, you can just use a simple dictonary:

operators = { 'add': add, 'substract': sub, 'multiply': mul }
answer = operators[random.choice(operators.keys())](number1, number2)
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2 Comments

your last line answer = ... might need some editing to run without errors. And what about number1 and number2?
@hitzg: ah, indeed, wrong bracer, sorry ;) And I didn't provide complete working solution, just a few pointers here.
1

Here's an implementation using tuples instead of dicts, I added in more ways to represent each operation.

import random
from operator import add, sub, mul, floordiv

number1 = 5
number2 = 10

operators = (
    (add, ("add", "plus", "+")),
    (sub, ("subtract", "minus", "-")),
    (mul, ("multiply", "times", "*")),
    (floordiv, ("divide", "over", "/")),
)
operator, (name, operation, symbol) = random.choice(operators)
print("What is ", number1, operation, number2, "?")
print(operator(number1, number2))

Output

13:50 ~ $ python3 StackOverflow/27128400.py 
What is  5 times 10 ?
50
13:55 ~ $ python3 StackOverflow/27128400.py 
What is  5 plus 10 ?
15
13:55 ~ $ python3 StackOverflow/27128400.py 
What is  5 minus 10 ?
-5
13:55 ~ $ python3 StackOverflow/27128400.py 
What is  5 over 10 ?
0
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Comments

0

What you're trying to do here is certainly possible. The formation of the tuple above does not return anything useful. A dictionary is more appropriate.

You can construct the dictionary as:

operators = {'add':add, 'minus':sub, 'multiplied by':mul, 'divided by':floordiv}

This gives you a dictionary of related strings and functions. You can choose a random operator name (this will give the string value, not the operator itself.

operator = random.choice(list(operators.keys()))

Then compute the answer:

answer = operators.get(operator)(number1, number2)

This gets the operator function from the operators dictionary by 'searching' for its string partner.

Altogether now (with some numbers so it runs off the bat):

from operator import add, sub, mul, floordiv
import random 

operators = {'add':add, 'minus':sub, 'multiplied by':mul, 'divided by':floordiv}
operator = random.choice(list(operators.keys()))
number1 = 2
number2 = 3
answer = operators.get(operator)(number1, number2)
print "What is " + str(number1) + " " + operator + " " + str(number2) + "?"
print answer

(I'm using 2.7 for this)

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2 Comments

FYI: dict.keys() returns a list. So there is no need to call list(dict.keys())
I'm at work so it's taken a while to write it, the other answers weren't there when I began. I sure hope no one has been irrecoverably harmed by it.

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