Instructions:

Question

Debug the following program so that it can be executed and run correctly without errors. Start by finding and fixing the 2 syntax errors (so you can get the program to run!), then find and correct the 2 logic errors.

Finally, see if you can improve the program by implementing a try-except statement to handle invalid user-input.

Note - there are no mathematical or logic errors within the calculation or algorithm itself.
# ------ Program Description ------
# This is a sample program that allows user to enter a date in the format mm/dd/yyyy
# then returns which day of the week that date was.
#

def getDayOfWeek(day, month, year)
# Doomsday algorithm for finding day of week for any date

# January and February leap years
if month < 3:
month = month + 12
year = year - 1

# Doomsday Formula
a = year % 100
b = year // 100
result = (day + (13 * (month + 1)) // 5 + a + a // 4 + b // 4 + 5 * b) % 7

# Store days of week: Index 0-6
weekDays = ["Saturday", "Sunday", "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday"]
return weekDays[result]

# Main Driver Code
running = True

while (running == False):

# Get user input date and parse using '/'
inputVal = input("\nPlease enter a date in the form: mm-dd-yyyy\n\n")
date = inputVal.split("/"

# Parse input into mm, dd, yyyy
month = int(date[0])
day = int(date[1])
year = int(date[2])

print(inputVal + " was a " + getDayOfWeek(day, month, year))

response = input("Enter Q to quit or hit enter to calculate another date.\n")

# Exit Program
if(response == "Q" or response == "q"):
print("Goodbye!")
running = False

Answer 1

Here is the corrected program with all the specified issues (syntax errors and logic errors) fixed, along with the try-except block to handle invalid user input:

# ------ Program Description ------
# This is a sample program that allows the user to enter a date in the format mm/dd/yyyy
# then returns which day of the week that date was.
#

def getDayOfWeek(day, month, year):
    # Doomsday algorithm for finding the day of the week for any date

    # January and February leap years
    if month < 3:
        month += 12
        year -= 1

    # Doomsday Formula
    a = year % 100
    b = year // 100
    result = (day + (13 * (month + 1)) // 5 + a + a // 4 + b // 4 + 5 * b) % 7

    # Store days of week: Index 0-6
    weekDays = ["Saturday", "Sunday", "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday"]
    return weekDays[result]


# Main Driver Code
running = True

while running:  # Fixed logic error: changed False to True to allow the loop to run

    try:
        # Get user input date and parse using '/'
        inputVal = input("\nPlease enter a date in the form: mm/dd/yyyy\n\n")
        date = inputVal.split("/")  # Fixed syntax error: changed from split("/") to split("/") 

        # Parse input into mm, dd, yyyy
        month = int(date[0])
        day = int(date[1])
        year = int(date[2])

        print(inputVal + " was a " + getDayOfWeek(day, month, year))

        response = input("Enter Q to quit or hit enter to calculate another date.\n")

        # Exit Program
        if response == "Q" or response == "q":
            print("Goodbye!")
            running = False
    except (ValueError, IndexError):
        print("Invalid input. Please enter the date in the correct format: mm/dd/yyyy.")

Summary of Changes Made:

1. Syntax Fixes:

   • Added a colon : after the function definition def getDayOfWeek(day, month, year).
   • Corrected the split syntax error: replaced split("/") (missing closing parenthesis) with the correct version.

2. Logic Fixes:

   • The while condition was changed from running == False to running to allow the loop to run initially.
   • The correct date separator is / in both the user prompt and the parsing logic, ensuring consistency.

3. Error Handling:

   • A try-except block was added to catch and handle ValueError (e.g., if conversion to int fails) and IndexError (if the wrong number of parts are provided) to make the program more robust against invalid inputs.