first item from user input not being included using append function

April 23, 2023

I’m trying to create a list of numbers from user input.

I tried to use ‘append’ to create the list so I am then able to calculate the average, but ‘append’ is not including the first number entered by the user.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

list_number = []  
number = float(input("Please enter any number (enter (-1) when done): "))



while number != -1:         
    number = float(input("Please enter any number (enter (-1) when done): "))
    list_number.append(number)
    if number == -1 : 
        print("You have exited the loop")
        break


print(list_number)
total_num = sum(list_number)
num_entries = len(list_number)
average = total_num / num_entries
print("Average: ", average)

>Solution :

Welcome to StackOverflow! It looks like you simply forgot to list_number.append(number) after the first number = .... However, the while loop used here should be replaced with a "do while" to avoid repetition. To do this in Python, just while True and add a break statement if number == -1 as you already have.

For example:

list_number = []  

while True:
    number = float(input("Please enter any number (enter (-1) when done): "))
    if number == -1: 
        print("You have exited the loop")
        break
    else:
        list_number.append(number)

print(list_number)
total_num = sum(list_number)
num_entries = len(list_number)
average = total_num / num_entries
print("Average: ", average)