populating a list in python via append

Question

I am practicing beginners Python projects and trying to do the dice rolling simulator, where it stores the totals of all die in a list. However, it doesn't work for some reason. Could someone explain why a code like this works:

n=0
a=[]
while n<6:
    n+=1
    a.append(n)

print(a)

and produces [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], but this code doesn't:

import random
maxnum=6
minnum=1
roll_again="y"
count=0
while roll_again=="y":
    tots=[]
    print("rolling the dice...")
    roll1=(random.randint(minnum,maxnum))
    roll2=(random.randint(minnum,maxnum))
    count+=1
    total=roll1+roll2
    print(roll1, roll2)
    print("Try #",count, ": Total = ", total,"\n")    
    roll_again=input("Roll the dice again? Y/N    ")
    if roll_again!="y" and roll_again!="n":
        print("please enter 'y' for yes or 'n' for no")
        roll_again=input("Roll the dice again? Y/N    ")
    tots.append(total)

print(tots) 

It just prints the last total as a list with one value. What am I missing here?

Answer 1

Move the tots = [] out of while loop, as wnnmaw suggested. Write it just before the loop, underneath count=0 .

Answer 2

you reset the list tots=[] in each iteration so that it never gets to hold more than one element. try to put it outside the while loop:

tots=[]
while roll_again=="y":
    ...
    tots.append(...)
print(tots)