How to format a name

Question

I'm taking a class on python and the lab assignment asks...

Many documents use a specific format for a person's name. Write a program whose input is:

firstName middleName lastName

and whose output is:

lastName, firstInitial.middleInitial.

Ex: If the input is:

Pat Silly Doe

the output is:

Doe, P.S.

If the input has the form:

firstName lastName

the output is:

lastName, firstInitial.

Ex: If the input is:

Julia Clark

the output is:

Clark, J.

So far I have...

firstName = input()
middleName = input()
lastName = input()
lastName2 = input()
firstName2 = input()

print(lastName+ ',', (firstName[0])+'.'+(middleName[0])+'.')

on the test screen, it says it outputs as Doe, P.S. but when I go to the submit screen it says there's no output. I don't get any of this.

This is the error message I'm getting

0 / 3
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "main.py", line 2, in <module>
    middleName = input()
EOFError: EOF when reading a line
Input
Pat Silly Doe
Your output
Your program produced no output
Expected output
Doe, P.S.

Answer 1

The question says that the input is all on one line. Each call to input() reads a whole line of input. So your solution requires 5 lines of input to be provided -- 3 for a person with 3 names, and 2 for a second person with only 2 names.

You should just call input() once to get the whole name. Use split() to break it into a list at the whitespace separators. Then you can produce the appropriate output depending on the length of the list.

names = input().split()
if len(names) == 3:
    first_name, middle_name, last_name = names
    print(f'{last_name}, {first_name[0]}.{middle_name[0]}.')
elif len(names) == 2:
    first_name, last_name = names
    print(f'{last_name}, {first_name[0]}.')
else:
    print("Invalid input")

Answer 2

Maybe your problem is that you haven't wrote the input. I run it and it works just fine [![That's just running your code][1]][1]

However, I see a problem and it's that you're asking first nime twice and last name too and not really using them. Please let me know if I did help you [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/b2jiq.png