[Tutor] Counting iterations of a function

[Neil Cerutti]

On 2017-11-30, Michael Dowell <michael.dowell297 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello, I'm trying to code a magic 8-ball program and it needs
> to include a counter for the number of questions asked. I'm
> having a hard time implementing a count, and need a little
> help. I had tried to implement it in the main() function, but
> that (naturally) led it to only counting '1' for each question,
> for each question asked. Is there a way to count how many times
> a give line of code is executed? For instance, every time the
> oracle() function is run, a counter goes up. Thanks for any
> help.
>
> Program:
> #import modules
> import random
> import turtle
>
>
> #Give welcome message
> def print1():
>
>     print("Hello!")
>     print("Thank you for using this Magic 8-Ball Simulator.")
>     print("We understand that you have a choice in magic 8-ball
> experiences,\n and that you have no choice in viewing mine.")
>     print("Thank you")
>
> #Define main function
>
> def main():
>     #Set local variables
>     count=0          #Tried to intergrate count into main() function
>     query=''
>
> #Get question
>     query=str(input("Please type in your question(press 'Enter' to exit):"))
>
>     while query!='':
>         oracle()
>         main()
>         break

You are combining a while loop and a recursive call to main in a
redundant way. A while loop without the complication of the
function calling itself makes things easier. By the way, input
returns a string, so you don't need to call "str" on it.

    query = input("Please type in your question(press 'Enter' to exit):")
    while query!='':
        oracle()
	count += 1
    	query = input("Please type in your question(press 'Enter' to exit):"))

When the while loop is finally complete, count will be the number
of times oracle has run. In current Python, pushing the query
into a separate function is a good way to eliminate the verbatim
repetition of code.

def get_query():
    return input("Please type in your question(press 'Enter' to exit):")

In main:

    query = get_query()
    while query!='':
        oracle()
	count += 1
    	query = get_query()

You can generalize function-call counting by writing a function
decorator that counts the number of times its function has run,
and then decorate oracle with it, but that pie is higher in the
sky than needed here.

-- 
Neil Cerutti