Python Forum

Hi all,
Edit: We are not allowed to use lists, in. We are to solve this using if/elif/else
These were the instructions:

Complete the get_season() function which takes a string parameter month. If month is assigned a valid month name, then the function returns the corresponding season (as a string). Otherwise the function returns the string "Undefined - invalid month".

The seasons and their corresponding months are list below:

Spring: September, October, November
Summer: December, January, February
Autumn: March, April, May
Winter: June, July, August

Output:
Expected Output:
month = "October"
print("Season:", get_season(month))

Result:
Season: Spring

This is what I've written:

def get_season(month):
    msg1 = "Spring"
    msg2 = "Summer"
    msg3 = "Autumn"
    msg4 = "Winter"
    msg5 = "Undefined - invalid month"
    msg = ""
    
    if month == "September" or "October" or "November":
        msg = msg1
    elif month == "December" or "January" or "February":
        msg = msg2
    elif month == "March" or "April" or "May":
        msg = msg3
    elif month == "June" or "July" or "May":
        msg = msg4
    else:
        msg = msg5
        
    return msg

Problem:
The function returns Spring every-time, regardless of month. Am I missing something?

Of course it does. On line 9 (and the others really), your condition is wrong. You need to write month == "September" or month == "October" or month == "November".

Non-empty strings evaluate to True, so if month isn't "September", the string "October" is tested and since that evaluates to True (the term used is "truthy") line 10 is executed. See the docs for more info.

...

def get_season(month):
    season = {
        'Spring': ['September', 'October', 'November'],
        'Summer': ['December', 'January', 'February'],
        'Autumn': ['March', 'April', 'May'],
        'Winter': ['June', 'July', 'August']
        }
    key = season.keys()
    for k in key:
        if month in season[k]: return k
    return 'invalid month'

print(get_season('October'))

Output:
Spring