I'm trying to create a function in python that outputs a menu like this:
p) Play the matching penny game
q) Quit
What I've tried...
def display_menu(): print "###MENU###" print "p) Play the matching penny game" print "q) Quit" I want to call the function in a script and have the menu displayed, but it doesn't display in the shell nor does it throw an error. How do I go about doing this?
I guess you forgot to call the display_menu function. Try this:
def display_menu(): print "MENU".center(10, "#") print "p) Play the matching penny game" print "q) Quit" if __name__ == "__main__": display_menu() 
def display_menu(): print "###MENU###" print "p) Play the matching penny game" print "q) Quit" display_menu() # call the function You have to actually call the function in order for it to run.
you probably need parentheses around your text..
def display_menu(): print ("###MENU###") print ("p) Play the matching penny game") print ("q) Quit") display_menu() 
The function you wrote is 100% fine for what you want. The problem is that you aren't calling it at all during execution. If your program is going to be complex, I'd suggest creating a main function where everything major takes place, the heart of your program, and calling that via:
if __name__ == "__main__": main() Otherwise you can have it called however you want, as long it the function is executed at runtime, which it currently isn't.
>>> display_menu()it should work.