Debug me please

[simpatar]

Alright, this is how my newest program looks like:

import math

def main():
    print('This program finds the real solutions to a quadratic')
    print

    s = float(input('Please enter the coefficients (a,b,c): '))
    a, b, c = s.split(',')

    
    discRoot = float(math.sqrt(b * b - 4 * a * c))
    root1 = (-b + discRoot) / (2*a)
    root2 = (-b - discRoot) / (2*a)

    print
    print('The solutions are:', root1, ('and'), root2)

main()

and i get this error msg:
in main
in main
s = float(input('Please enter the coefficients (a,b,c): '))
ValueError: invalid literal for float(): 2, 3, -2

Help ._.

[vegaseat]

I assume you are using Python3?

When you are splitting the input string you still get strings, so each coefficients (a,b,c) has to be converted to a float before you apply it to your formula.

[simpatar]

Correct, I use python3.

I deleted the float infront of the input since it was causing the program to bug. But shouldnt I be able to tell python to make all variables that i put in the input to be floats? if not,
how do I make them float nicely?

[jlm699]

Correct, I use python3.

I deleted the float infront of the input since it was causing the program to bug. But shouldnt I be able to tell python to make all variables that i put in the input to be floats? if not,
how do I make them float nicely?

Basically you have to iterate over your "split" coefficients and then perform float conversion on each one independently. When you split them they return a list, which you'll be doing your iteration on. Here's the steps broken down:

>>> my_coeffs = input('Enter coefficients (a,b,c): ')
Enter coefficients (a,b,c): 3, 5.5, 4.25
>>> coeff_list = my_coeffs.split(',')
>>> coeff_list
['3', ' 5.5', ' 4.25']
>>> # Create an empty list to store our float values
>>> float_list = []
>>> # Iterate over our string coefficients
>>> for each in coeff_list:
...     # turn each one into a float
...     conv_coeff = float(each)
...     # and finally store it
...     float_list.append(conv_coeff)
...     
>>> float_list
[3.0, 5.5, 4.25]
>>>

But thankfully in python you can make it look a little more beautiful than the above using list comprehension:

>>> my_coeffs = raw_input('Enter coefficients (a,b,c): ')
Enter coefficients (a,b,c): 2, 4.5, 5.25
>>> float_list = [float(each) for each in my_coeffs.split(',')]
>>> float_list
[2.0, 4.5, 5.25]
>>>

List comprehension allows us to create a list from another iterable while performing some action (and there's even room for logic). This is a powerful tool that you would probably benefit from learning.

Here's the documentation about it

[vegaseat]

Just modify your code, also take care of negative numbers in your square root ...

import math

def main():
    print('This program finds the real solutions to a quadratic')
    print()

    s = input('Please enter the coefficients (a,b,c): ')
    a, b, c = s.split(',')
    a = float(a)
    b = float(b)
    c = float(c)

    disc = b * b - 4 * a * c
    if disc < 0:
        print("root will give imaginary number")
        return
    discRoot = math.sqrt(disc)
    root1 = (-b + discRoot) / (2*a)
    root2 = (-b - discRoot) / (2*a)

    print()
    print('The solutions are:', root1, ('and'), root2)

main()