what do the three dots in this line of Python code mean?

Question

I found this Python code online:

table = {'Sjoerd': 4127, 'Jack': 4098, 'Dcab': 8637678}
>>> print('Jack: {0[Jack]:d}; Sjoerd: {0[Sjoerd]:d}; '
...       'Dcab: {0[Dcab]:d}'.format(table))

This executes perfectly to give me Jack: 4098; Sjoerd: 4127; Dcab: 8637678.

But when I tried removing the three dots and running the code I got an error:

table = {'Sjoerd': 4127, 'Jack': 4098, 'Dcab': 8637678}
>>> print('Jack: {0[Jack]:d}; Sjoerd: {0[Sjoerd]:d}; Dcab: {0[Dcab]:d}'.format(table))

File "<ipython-input-53-2065564231a1>", line 3
    >>> print('Jack: {0[Jack]:d}; Sjoerd: {0[Sjoerd]:d}; Dcab: {0[Dcab]:d}'.format(table))
     ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Why is this happening?

What do the three dots mean?

It's the continuation of a line indicator when using ipython etc; — Aditya
– Aditya, Commented Jun 25, 2020 at 7:15
It's not part of the code, just as the >>> isn't part of the code. — deceze
– deceze ♦, Commented Jun 25, 2020 at 7:16
but why didn't the code work when I removed the dots and moved it to a single line — Ashwin Radhakrishnan
– Ashwin Radhakrishnan, Commented Jun 25, 2020 at 7:17
This probably indicates the indentation when you execute python from command prompt. Plz look into this docs.python.org/2.0/ref/indentation.html — Shivam Bharadwaj
– Shivam Bharadwaj, Commented Jun 25, 2020 at 7:17
I think the syntax error is indicating the >>>?! Because that's not part of the code. The ... are irrelevant. The problem is that you're trying to execute code including the >>>. — deceze
– deceze ♦, Commented Jun 25, 2020 at 7:18

Harvard Candidate · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-25 13:54:36Z

1

From the documentation:

When commands are read from a tty, the interpreter is said to be in interactive mode.

In this mode it prompts for the next command with the primary prompt, usually three greater-than signs (>>>); for continuation lines it prompts with the secondary prompt, by default three dots (...).

The interpreter prints a welcome message stating its version number and a copyright notice before printing the first prompt

answered Jun 25, 2020 at 13:54

Harvard Candidate

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Comments

Ashwin Radhakrishnan · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-25 07:42:40Z

0

The code works when you remove the >>> from it. the >>> was giving the error.

The code also works if you use >>> in the first line and ... in the next line. Jupyter notebooks was used to run this code.

answered Jun 25, 2020 at 7:42

Ashwin Radhakrishnan

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