Struggling with the black jack exercise

Programming Python
1

Hi!
It’s my first time using exercism and I’m new to programming (I just started 2 weeks ago).

Right now I’m stuck at the first task of black jack exercise (Calculate the value of a card)

this is my code

def value_of_card(card):
    """Determine the scoring value of a card.

    :param card: str - given card.
    :return: int - value of a given card.  See below for values.

    1.  'J', 'Q', or 'K' (otherwise known as "face cards") = 10
    2.  'A' (ace card) = 1
    3.  '2' - '10' = numerical value.
    """
    
    if card == 'A':
            return 1
    elif card in ['K', 'J', 'Q']:
            return 10
    elif isinstance(card, int):
            return int(card)
    else:
           pass

and this is the code run

test_data = [('2', 2), ('5', 5), ('8', 8),
             ('A', 1), ('10', 10), ('J', 10),
             ('Q', 10), ('K', 10)]

for variant, (card, expected) in enumerate(test_data, 1):
    with self.subTest(f'variation #{variant}', card=card, expected=expected):
        actual_result = value_of_card(card)
        error_msg = (f'Called value_of_card({card}). '
                     f'The function returned {actual_result} as the value of the {card} card, '
                     f'but the test expected {expected} as the {card} card value.')

        self.assertEqual(actual_result, expected, msg=error_msg)

I hope there is someone who can explain or give me a clue as to why my code doesn’t work.
Thank you!

2

The card is always a str. This condition will never be true. isinstance checks a data type. It does not check the contents of a string. There are string methods you can use for that, though!

3

Thank you for the solution!
Turns out, i just need to read the documentation carefully.

4

While what Isaac says is true, you can simplify your logic even more. Since your if statements check if the card is an A first, it’ll either be true, or false, if false it moves to the next condition. Is it a face card, true or false, then you there is no need to ask the last condition as the other two are already false. To put simply, you have 3 options, if the first two are false, then the last one is automatically true, therefore you can just use the else statement.