If else statement not outputting correctly?

Question

I'm a beginner to Python and am struggling with a project I am working on. The program takes monthly income, fixed monthly expenses, asks for any additional expenses, and then outputs with an if else statement. My issue is in this function:

def spending(income, totals):

  finalTotal = income - totals

  if income > finalTotal:

    print("You saved $", "%.2f"%finalTotal, "this month!")
  elif finalTotal > income:

    print("You overspent by $", "%.2f"%finalTotal, "this month!")

  else:

    print("You broke even this month!")

It is printing:

You saved $ -805.00 this month!

When I'd like it to print:

You overspent by $ 805.00 this month!

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!!

Here is my code: https://replit.com/@ashleyshubin/BudgetProgram#main.py

It's unrelated to your main question (about the if/elif conditions), but your formatting is a bit weird in the print calls. There's no reason to split the %.2f into its own string just for the formatting. You could use "You saved $%.2f this month!" % finalTotal, or better, do something similar with str.format (or an f-string). — Blckknght
– Blckknght, Commented Feb 13, 2022 at 3:24

user18130483 · Accepted Answer · 2022-02-13 03:20:38Z

1

If totals is your monthly expenses, then subtracting totals from income gives you how much money you made this month. The first if statement should be

if finalTotal > 0:

The second if statement would be

if finalTotal < 0:

And you would want to use abs(finalTotal) when printing finalTotal so it does not display a negative number

answered Feb 13, 2022 at 3:20

user18130483

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Comments

ksohan · Accepted Answer · 2022-02-13 03:23:04Z

0

Your checks are wrong. You can do the following:

def spending(income, totals):
  finalTotal = income - totals
  if income > totals:
    print("You saved $", "%.2f"%finalTotal, "this month!")
  elif totals > income:
    print("You overspent by $", "%.2f"%-finalTotal, "this month!")
  else:
    print("You broke even this month!")

answered Feb 13, 2022 at 3:23

ksohan

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Comments

Edward Langdon · Accepted Answer · 2022-02-13 03:23:34Z

0

This section is where it is going wrong:

finalTotal = income - totals
  if income > finalTotal:
    print("You saved $", "%.2f"%finalTotal, "this month!")

It looks like you're comparing the wrong variables in your "if" statement. your "finalTotal" variable already includes your income. Think of it like alegbra, and replace "finalTotal" with "income - totals", and your if statement now looks like:

    if income > (income - totals):

this statement will always evaluate to true, no matter what values you are using. You probably want to rewrite your if statements to compare "income > totals", rather than finalTotal.

answered Feb 13, 2022 at 3:23

Edward Langdon

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Comments

eshirvana · Accepted Answer · 2022-02-13 03:23:38Z

0

your comparison shoud be based on finaltotal , as fianaltotal is finalTotal = income - totals, also else never runs based on the other conditions in your code:

def spending(income, totals):
    finalTotal = income - totals
    if finalTotal > 0:
        print("You saved $", "%.2f" % finalTotal, "this month!")
    else:
        print("You overspent by $", "%.2f" % abs(finalTotal), "this month!")

answered Feb 13, 2022 at 3:23

eshirvana

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Comments

Kondalarao V · Accepted Answer · 2022-02-13 03:24:29Z

0

you should be comparing Income with total spends.

def spending(income, totals):

  finalTotal = abs(income - totals)

  if totals < income:

    print("You saved $", "%.2f"%finalTotal, "this month!")
  elif totals > income:

    print("You overspent by $", "%.2f"%finalTotal, "this month!")

  else:

    print("You broke even this month!")

answered Feb 13, 2022 at 3:24

Kondalarao V

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