If calculation confusion - distance

[Mettauk]

I have the following in a python script to measure distance

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...
  def measure_average():
  # This function takes 3 measurements and
  # returns the average.
  distance1=measure()
  time.sleep(0.1)
  distance2=measure()
  time.sleep(0.1)
  distance3=measure()
  distance = distance1 + distance2 + distance3
  distance = distance / 3
  return distance

Then

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try:

  while True:

    distance = measure_average()
    print "Distance : %.1f cm" % distance
    time.sleep(1)

except KeyboardInterrupt:
  # User pressed CTRL-C
  # Reset GPIO settings
  GPIO.cleanup()

I want to insert

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    if distance()>= 5
    print 'words'
    end if

For some reason it does not like it? I get

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~ $ sudo python ultra2.py
  File "ultra2.py", line 87
    if distance()>=5
                   ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Guessing i'm making a really simple error??

[DougieLawson]

All conditional statements in python must end with a colon (:)

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    if distance() >= 5: 

Anything that's conditional must be indented by at least one space from the indentation level of the if statement

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      print ("words")

There's also no scope terminators. So

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    end if

is completely invalid.

[Douglas6]

And distance is a variable, not a method, so use

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if distance >= 5:

[stderr]

udo python ultra2.py
File "ultra2.py", line 87
if distance()>=5
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
[/code]
Guessing i'm making a really simple error??

The first thing to do is post things using the correct indentation since python requires that to even parse properly all other things being correct. According to a quick google, the python if construct looks like this:

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if expression:
   statement(s)
else:
   statement(s)

Finally, what do you mean by "if distance()>=5"? Is "distance()" a function? It might help to put spaces between things as sometimes that is required.

[Mettauk]

Thanks to you both, I think I was having a minor mind melt!