What Does "while True" Mean In Python?

def play_game(word_list): hand = deal_hand(HAND_SIZE) # random init while True: cmd = raw_input('Enter n to deal a new hand, r to replay the last hand, or e to end

Solution 1:

while True means loop forever. The while statement takes an expression and executes the loop body while the expression evaluates to (boolean) "true". True always evaluates to boolean "true" and thus executes the loop body indefinitely. It's an idiom that you'll just get used to eventually! Most languages you're likely to encounter have equivalent idioms.

Note that most languages usually have some mechanism for breaking out of the loop early. In the case of Python it's the break statement in the cmd == 'e' case of the sample in your question.

Solution 2:

my question: while WHAT is True?

While True is True.

The while loop will run as long as the conditional expression evaluates to True.

Since True always evaluates to True, the loop will run indefinitely, until something within the loop returns or breaks.

Solution 3:

while True is true -- ie always. This is an infinite loop

Note the important distinction here between True which is a keyword in the language denoting a constant value of a particular type, and 'true' which is a mathematical concept.

Solution 4:

my question: while WHAT is True?

Everything inside the () of the while statement is going to be evaluated as a boolean. Meaning it gets converted into either true or false.

Consider in the statement while(6 > 5)

It first evaluates the expression 6 > 5 which is true so is the same as saying while(true)

Anything that is not FALSE, 0, an emptry string "", null, or undefined is likely to be evaluated to true.

When I first started programming I used to do things like if(foo == true), I didn't realise that was virtually the same thing as if(foo).

So when you say while(true) its like are saying while(true == true)

So to answer you question: While TRUE is True.

Solution 5:

In this context, I suppose it could be interpreted as

do
...
while cmd  != 'e'