ISTA 130: Fall 2020

Programming Assignment 2
Functions

Due: Thursday, September 17th by 11:59 pm
(submit via D2L Assignments)

Please read the instructions below carefully and follow them closely. All problems (and parts of
problems) are required except as noted in the instructions below.

Important: your filenames must be identical to the filenames given below. For any functions you are
asked to write, the function signature (header) must be exactly as described in the instructions. That is,
you must use the exact function names given in the instructions, you must have the parameters the
instructions ask for, and the parameters must be in the order the instructions give.

Also important: make sure you always save a backup of your work somewhere safe (such as UA Box or
Google Drive).

Writing and Testing Your Code

For this assignment, you will create six functions that do not need turtle graphics. Download the file
called functions.py. This file will contain your code. Download test_functions.py and put it
in the same folder as your functions.py module:

1
Run test_functions.py from the command line to see your current correctness score:

If the command line current working directory is not the folder containing the two files, you will get a
file not found error. If there is a typo in either file name, you will get a file not found
error. If both files are not in the same directory, you will get a file not found error. Examples:

or:

An extremely common error, especially on macs (because of the way drag-and-drop works): having two
copies of a file in different directories. The symptom of this is that you keep changing the code in your
script to fix an error, but nothing changes when you run the test – because you're actually testing a
different file than the one you are changing. Check your paths!

2
If you get a syntax error on a line, but it looks perfect, it almost always means you forgot a parenthesis
on the previous line:

Once you get rid of all of the syntax errors, the test will run and it will also provide you with error
messages. If you get a name not defined error in the output from the test, you have a typo in
one of your variable names:

There are many other common mistakes. As you learn your own patterns of mistakes, debugging will
become faster and faster. And you will get better and better at understanding the tests' error messages.

Many, many times your code will not pass because the text you print doesn't exactly match the spec:

The line starting with the - is what your code should produce (red arrow). The line starting with the + is
what your code actually produces (blue arrow). The3 carets on the lines starting with ?'s show where
strings differ. In this case, we can see that I should be printing a capital R but I'm actually printing a
small r. The mismatch is also shown in the red rectangle. This version is really handy when there are
whitespace issues like a space hidden behind a tab, which will be a problem in a later homework,
because it shows the actual whitespace characters (notice the newline character, \n).

Each of the functions is worth 10% of your correctness score. You can examine the test module in a text
editor to understand better what your code should do. The test module is part of the homework
specification (aka the spec).

The other 40% of your grade is for answering some questions as described below after the function
specifications.

Function Writing Drills (100 points)

To do this homework, you need to understand how the built-in print function works. Open a Python
shell with the python (python3 on macs) command. Imitate this:

If we pass one argument, Python prints it. If we pass more than one argument separated by commas,
Python prints them with spaces between them. Mess with this until you understand print so you can
complete the following functions.

1.) Write a function called chases that has two string parameters. The first is a predator, the
second a prey animal. You will use these to print a line per the examples below. You must
match this output format (i.e. if you call your function with the same arguments as in the
examples your output should look like the output in the examples). The code executed is in
blue, the output produced is in green):

chases('dragon', 'human')
The dragon chases the human

chases('coyote', 'roadrunner')
The coyote chases the roadrunner

Your code should just fill in the predator and the prey in the correct spots. The rest prints the
same every time.
4
2.) Write a function called sum3 that takes three numerical arguments and prints their sum in this
format (the code executed is in blue, the output produced is in green):

sum3(1, 2, 3)
The sum of the arguments is: 6

sum3(4, 5, 6)
The sum of the arguments is: 15

3.) Write a function called forecast that has no parameters. You can see that
barebones functions.py that we provided imports the random module. Use
random.randrange(101) to get an integer between 0 and 100. This is your
forecasted chance of rain, which will be different every time. Print it in the following
format (the code executed is in blue, the output produced is in green):

forecast()
Chance of rain today: 59 %

forecast()
Chance of rain today: 74 %

4.) Write a function called radians that takes an angle in degrees and prints it converted to
radians. The formula for turning an angle in degrees into radians is:

radians = degrees * p / 180.

Use math.pi for p. You should round the result to three decimal places using the built-in
round function. The documentation is here. I suggest messing around in the shell with round
to see how it works. Here are some examples of calling the function with different arguments.
(The code executed is in blue, the output produced is in green):

radians(200)
The angle in radians is: 3.491

radians(30)
The angle in radians is: 0.524

5.) Write a function called decimal that takes a number. Print the decimal part in the format
below. To get the decimal part, subtract the floor of the number from the number using
math.floor. Round the result to three decimal places.

Here are some examples of calling the function with different arguments. (The code executed is
in blue, the output produced is in green):

decimal(5.983)
Decimal part: 0.983

decimal(5.9839) 5
Decimal part: 0.984
 6.) Write a function called erf_plus_gamma that takes a number and prints the error function of
the number plus the gamma function of the number in the format shown below. Use
math.erf and math.gamma and round the result to three decimal places.

Here are some examples of calling the function with different arguments. (The code executed is
in blue, the output produced is in green):

erf_plus_gamma(0.6)
Result: 2.093

erf_plus_gamma(0.22)
Result: 4.395

Now it is time to use your code to answer some questions and fill in the answer section of
functions.py (up near the top):

We are going to call some of your functions interactively and get the answers. Start the Python
interpreter from the command line with the Python command or Python3 on macs. Once the
shell is started, import all of your functions:

6
 As a warmup, try calling chases with the following pairs of arguments:

"frog", "fly"
"snake", "frog"
"hawk", "snake"

Your console should look like (I hit enter a few times to put space between the calls):

Ok, now answer these questions by calling your functions and passing in the appropriate arguments.
Write the answers next to the corresponding number in the functions.py answer section.

1) What is the sum of 11034567, 999, and 76576?

Verify that your documentation makes sense and that you’ve added documentation to each of your
functions, per the examples in docstrings.py or any of the posted example code.

Verify that your program works by running test_functions.py.

Upload your file to the Homework 2 Assignments folder on D2L.