Python (2.x) multiplication is not happening properly

Question

Here is the code ...

a=4
b=8.0
if a and a >0:
    a=a*int(b)
    print \"Value:\",a 

The desired o/p should be 32. i am also getting the sam

Answer 1

I bet you 100 bob that in your product a is not actually the integer 4, but the string '4'.

>>> a = '4'
>>> b=8.0
>>> if a and a >0:
...     a=a*int(b)
...     print "Value:",a
... 
Value: 44444444

This will happen, for example, if you are using something like a = raw_input('Please enter a number: ') and then you forget to convert the string a into a number.

Answer 2

'a' must be a string in your code:

>>> a = 4
>>> b = 8
>>> a * b
32
>>> a = "4"
>>> a * b
'44444444'
>>> int(a) * b
32

Answer 3

That looks like a is a string, and not an integer. Try this:

a = int(a) * int(b)

Hope that helps