Asking the user for input until they give a valid response

I am writing a program that accepts an input from the user.

#note: Python 2.7 users should use `raw_input`, the equivalent of 3.X's `input`
age = int(input("Please enter your age: "))
if age >= 18: 
    print("You are able to vote in the United States!")
else:
    print("You are not able to vote in the United States.")

The program works as expected as long as the the user enters meaningful data.

C:\Python\Projects> canyouvote.py
Please enter your age: 23
You are able to vote in the United States!

But it fails if the user enters invalid data:

C:\Python\Projects> canyouvote.py
Please enter your age: dickety six
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "canyouvote.py", line 1, in <module>
    age = int(input("Please enter your age: "))
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: 'dickety six'

Instead of crashing, I would like the program to ask for the input again. Like this:

C:\Python\Projects> canyouvote.py
Please enter your age: dickety six
Sorry, I didn't understand that.
Please enter your age: 26
You are able to vote in the United States!

How can I make the program ask for valid inputs instead of crashing when non-sensical data is entered?

How can I reject values like -1, which is a valid int, but nonsensical in this context?

The simplest way to accomplish this is to put the input method in a while loop. Use continue when you get bad input, and break out of the loop when you're satisfied.

##When Your Input Might Raise an Exception

Use try and except to detect when the user enters data that can't be parsed.

while True:
    try:
        # Note: Python 2.x users should use raw_input, the equivalent of 3.x's input
        age = int(input("Please enter your age: "))
    except ValueError:
        print("Sorry, I didn't understand that.")
        #better try again... Return to the start of the loop
        continue
    else:
        #age was successfully parsed!
        #we're ready to exit the loop.
        break
if age >= 18: 
    print("You are able to vote in the United States!")
else:
    print("You are not able to vote in the United States.")

##Implementing Your Own Validation Rules

If you want to reject values that Python can successfully parse, you can add your own validation logic.

while True:
    data = input("Please enter a loud message (must be all caps): ")
    if not data.isupper():
        print("Sorry, your response was not loud enough.")
        continue
    else:
        #we're happy with the value given.
        #we're ready to exit the loop.
        break

while True:
    data = input("Pick an answer from A to D:")
    if data.lower() not in ('a', 'b', 'c', 'd'):
        print("Not an appropriate choice.")
    else:
        break

##Combining Exception Handling and Custom Validation

Both of the above techniques can be combined into one loop.

while True:
    try:
        age = int(input("Please enter your age: "))
    except ValueError:
        print("Sorry, I didn't understand that.")
        continue

    if age < 0:
        print("Sorry, your response must not be negative.")
        continue
    else:
        #age was successfully parsed, and we're happy with its value.
        #we're ready to exit the loop.
        break
if age >= 18: 
    print("You are able to vote in the United States!")
else:
    print("You are not able to vote in the United States.")

##Encapsulating it All in a Function

If you need to ask your user for a lot of different values, it might be useful to put this code in a function, so you don't have to retype it every time.

def get_non_negative_int(prompt):
    while True:
        try:
            value = int(input(prompt))
        except ValueError:
            print("Sorry, I didn't understand that.")
            continue

        if value < 0:
            print("Sorry, your response must not be negative.")
            continue
        else:
            break
    return value

age = get_non_negative_int("Please enter your age: ")
kids = get_non_negative_int("Please enter the number of children you have: ")
salary = get_non_negative_int("Please enter your yearly earnings, in dollars: ")

###Putting It All Together You can extend this idea to make a very generic input function:

def sanitised_input(prompt, type_=None, min_=None, max_=None, range_=None):
    if min_ is not None and max_ is not None and max_ < min_:
        raise ValueError("min_ must be less than or equal to max_.")
    while True:
        ui = input(prompt)
        if type_ is not None:
            try:
                ui = type_(ui)
            except ValueError:
                print("Input type must be {0}.".format(type_.__name__))
                continue
        if max_ is not None and ui > max_:
            print("Input must be less than or equal to {0}.".format(max_))
        elif min_ is not None and ui < min_:
            print("Input must be greater than or equal to {0}.".format(min_))
        elif range_ is not None and ui not in range_:
            if isinstance(range_, range):
                template = "Input must be between {0.start} and {0.stop}."
                print(template.format(range_))
            else:
                template = "Input must be {0}."
                if len(range_) == 1:
                    print(template.format(*range_))
                else:
                    expected = " or ".join((
                        ", ".join(str(x) for x in range_[:-1]),
                        str(range_[-1])
                    ))
                    print(template.format(expected))
        else:
            return ui

With usage such as:

age = sanitised_input("Enter your age: ", int, 1, 101)
answer = sanitised_input("Enter your answer: ", str.lower, range_=('a', 'b', 'c', 'd'))

##Common Pitfalls, and Why you Should Avoid Them

###The Redundant Use of Redundant input Statements This method works but is generally considered poor style:

data = input("Please enter a loud message (must be all caps): ")
while not data.isupper():
    print("Sorry, your response was not loud enough.")
    data = input("Please enter a loud message (must be all caps): ")

It might look attractive initially because it's shorter than the while True method, but it violates the Don't Repeat Yourself principle of software development. This increases the likelihood of bugs in your system. What if you want to backport to 2.7 by changing input to raw_input, but accidentally change only the first input above? It's a SyntaxError just waiting to happen.

###Recursion Will Blow Your Stack If you've just learned about recursion, you might be tempted to use it in get_non_negative_int so you can dispose of the while loop.

def get_non_negative_int(prompt):
    try:
        value = int(input(prompt))
    except ValueError:
        print("Sorry, I didn't understand that.")
        return get_non_negative_int(prompt)

    if value < 0:
        print("Sorry, your response must not be negative.")
        return get_non_negative_int(prompt)
    else:
        return value

This appears to work fine most of the time, but if the user enters invalid data enough times, the script will terminate with a RuntimeError: maximum recursion depth exceeded. You may think "no fool would make 1000 mistakes in a row", but you're underestimating the ingenuity of fools!

Why would you do a while True and then break out of this loop while you can also just put your requirements in the while statement since all you want is to stop once you have the age?

age = None
while age is None:
    input_value = input("Please enter your age: ")
    try:
        # try and convert the string input to a number
        age = int(input_value)
    except ValueError:
        # tell the user off
        print("{input} is not a number, please enter a number only".format(input=input_value))
if age >= 18:
    print("You are able to vote in the United States!")
else:
    print("You are not able to vote in the United States.")

This would result in the following:

Please enter your age: *potato*
potato is not a number, please enter a number only
Please enter your age: *5*
You are not able to vote in the United States.

this will work since age will never have a value that will not make sense and the code follows the logic of your "business process"

Though the accepted answer is amazing. I would also like to share a quick hack for this problem. (This takes care of the negative age problem as well.)

f=lambda age: (age.isdigit() and ((int(age)>=18  and "Can vote" ) or "Cannot vote")) or \
f(input("invalid input. Try again\nPlease enter your age: "))
print(f(input("Please enter your age: ")))

P.S. This code is for python 3.x.

Functional approach or "look mum no loops!":

from itertools import chain, repeat

prompts = chain(["Enter a number: "], repeat("Not a number! Try again: "))
replies = map(input, prompts)
valid_response = next(filter(str.isdigit, replies))
print(valid_response)

Enter a number:  a
Not a number! Try again:  b
Not a number! Try again:  1
1

or if you want to have a "bad input" message separated from an input prompt as in other answers:

prompt_msg = "Enter a number: "
bad_input_msg = "Sorry, I didn't understand that."
prompts = chain([prompt_msg], repeat('\n'.join([bad_input_msg, prompt_msg])))
replies = map(input, prompts)
valid_response = next(filter(str.isdigit, replies))
print(valid_response)

Enter a number:  a
Sorry, I didn't understand that.
Enter a number:  b
Sorry, I didn't understand that.
Enter a number:  1
1

How does it work?

1. prompts = chain(["Enter a number: "], repeat("Not a number! Try again: "))
   

   This combination of itertools.chain and itertools.repeat will create an iterator which will yield strings "Enter a number: " once, and "Not a number! Try again: " an infinite number of times:

   for prompt in prompts:
       print(prompt)
   

   Enter a number: 
   Not a number! Try again: 
   Not a number! Try again: 
   Not a number! Try again: 
   # ... and so on
   

2. replies = map(input, prompts) - here map will apply all the prompts strings from the previous step to the input function. E.g.:

   for reply in replies:
       print(reply)
   

   Enter a number:  a
   a
   Not a number! Try again:  1
   1
   Not a number! Try again:  it doesn't care now
   it doesn't care now
   # and so on...
   

3. We use filter and str.isdigit to filter out those strings that contain only digits:

   only_digits = filter(str.isdigit, replies)
   for reply in only_digits:
       print(reply)
   

   Enter a number:  a
   Not a number! Try again:  1
   1
   Not a number! Try again:  2
   2
   Not a number! Try again:  b
   Not a number! Try again: # and so on...
   

   And to get only the first digits-only string we use next.

Other validation rules:

1. String methods: Of course you can use other string methods like str.isalpha to get only alphabetic strings, or str.isupper to get only uppercase. See docs for the full list.

2. Membership testing:
   There are several different ways to perform it. One of them is by using __contains__ method:

   from itertools import chain, repeat
   
   fruits = {'apple', 'orange', 'peach'}
   prompts = chain(["Enter a fruit: "], repeat("I don't know this one! Try again: "))
   replies = map(input, prompts)
   valid_response = next(filter(fruits.__contains__, replies))
   print(valid_response)
   

   Enter a fruit:  1
   I don't know this one! Try again:  foo
   I don't know this one! Try again:  apple
   apple
   

3. Numbers comparison:
   There are useful comparison methods which we can use here. For example, for __lt__ (<):

   from itertools import chain, repeat
   
   prompts = chain(["Enter a positive number:"], repeat("I need a positive number! Try again:"))
   replies = map(input, prompts)
   numeric_strings = filter(str.isnumeric, replies)
   numbers = map(float, numeric_strings)
   is_positive = (0.).__lt__
   valid_response = next(filter(is_positive, numbers))
   print(valid_response)
   

   Enter a positive number: a
   I need a positive number! Try again: -5
   I need a positive number! Try again: 0
   I need a positive number! Try again: 5
   5.0
   

   Or, if you don't like using dunder methods (dunder = double-underscore), you can always define your own function, or use the ones from the operator module.

4. Path existance:
   Here one can use pathlib library and its Path.exists method:

   from itertools import chain, repeat
   from pathlib import Path
   
   prompts = chain(["Enter a path: "], repeat("This path doesn't exist! Try again: "))
   replies = map(input, prompts)
   paths = map(Path, replies)
   valid_response = next(filter(Path.exists, paths))
   print(valid_response)
   

   Enter a path:  a b c
   This path doesn't exist! Try again:  1
   This path doesn't exist! Try again:  existing_file.txt
   existing_file.txt
   

Limiting number of tries:

If you don't want to torture a user by asking him something an infinite number of times, you can specify a limit in a call of itertools.repeat. This can be combined with providing a default value to the next function:

from itertools import chain, repeat

prompts = chain(["Enter a number:"], repeat("Not a number! Try again:", 2))
replies = map(input, prompts)
valid_response = next(filter(str.isdigit, replies), None)
print("You've failed miserably!" if valid_response is None else 'Well done!')

Enter a number: a
Not a number! Try again: b
Not a number! Try again: c
You've failed miserably!

Preprocessing input data:

Sometimes we don't want to reject an input if the user accidentally supplied it IN CAPS or with a space in the beginning or an end of the string. To take these simple mistakes into account we can preprocess the input data by applying str.lower and str.strip methods. For example, for the case of membership testing the code will look like this:

from itertools import chain, repeat

fruits = {'apple', 'orange', 'peach'}
prompts = chain(["Enter a fruit: "], repeat("I don't know this one! Try again: "))
replies = map(input, prompts)
lowercased_replies = map(str.lower, replies)
stripped_replies = map(str.strip, lowercased_replies)
valid_response = next(filter(fruits.__contains__, stripped_replies))
print(valid_response)

Enter a fruit:  duck
I don't know this one! Try again:     Orange
orange

In the case when you have many functions to use for preprocessing, it might be easier to use a function performing a function composition. For example, using the one from here:

from itertools import chain, repeat

from lz.functional import compose

fruits = {'apple', 'orange', 'peach'}
prompts = chain(["Enter a fruit: "], repeat("I don't know this one! Try again: "))
replies = map(input, prompts)
process = compose(str.strip, str.lower)  # you can add more functions here
processed_replies = map(process, replies)
valid_response = next(filter(fruits.__contains__, processed_replies))
print(valid_response)

Enter a fruit:  potato
I don't know this one! Try again:   PEACH
peach

Combining validation rules:

For a simple case, for example, when the program asks for age between 1 and 120, one can just add another filter:

from itertools import chain, repeat

prompt_msg = "Enter your age (1-120): "
bad_input_msg = "Wrong input."
prompts = chain([prompt_msg], repeat('\n'.join([bad_input_msg, prompt_msg])))
replies = map(input, prompts)
numeric_replies = filter(str.isdigit, replies)
ages = map(int, numeric_replies)
positive_ages = filter((0).__lt__, ages)
not_too_big_ages = filter((120).__ge__, positive_ages)
valid_response = next(not_too_big_ages)
print(valid_response)

But in the case when there are many rules, it's better to implement a function performing a logical conjunction. In the following example I will use a ready one from here:

from functools import partial
from itertools import chain, repeat

from lz.logical import conjoin


def is_one_letter(string: str) -> bool:
    return len(string) == 1


rules = [str.isalpha, str.isupper, is_one_letter, 'C'.__le__, 'P'.__ge__]

prompt_msg = "Enter a letter (C-P): "
bad_input_msg = "Wrong input."
prompts = chain([prompt_msg], repeat('\n'.join([bad_input_msg, prompt_msg])))
replies = map(input, prompts)
valid_response = next(filter(conjoin(*rules), replies))
print(valid_response)

Enter a letter (C-P):  5
Wrong input.
Enter a letter (C-P):  f
Wrong input.
Enter a letter (C-P):  CDE
Wrong input.
Enter a letter (C-P):  Q
Wrong input.
Enter a letter (C-P):  N
N

Unfortunately, if someone needs a custom message for each failed case, then, I'm afraid, there is no pretty functional way. Or, at least, I couldn't find one.

Using Click:

Click is a library for command-line interfaces and it provides functionality for asking a valid response from a user.

Simple example:

import click

number = click.prompt('Please enter a number', type=float)
print(number)

Please enter a number: 
 a
Error: a is not a valid floating point value
Please enter a number: 
 10
10.0

Note how it converted the string value to a float automatically.

Checking if a value is within a range:

There are different custom types provided. To get a number in a specific range we can use IntRange:

age = click.prompt("What's your age?", type=click.IntRange(1, 120))
print(age)

What's your age?: 
 a
Error: a is not a valid integer
What's your age?: 
 0
Error: 0 is not in the valid range of 1 to 120.
What's your age?: 
 5
5

We can also specify just one of the limits, min or max:

age = click.prompt("What's your age?", type=click.IntRange(min=14))
print(age)

What's your age?: 
 0
Error: 0 is smaller than the minimum valid value 14.
What's your age?: 
 18
18

Membership testing:

Using click.Choice type. By default this check is case-sensitive.

choices = {'apple', 'orange', 'peach'}
choice = click.prompt('Provide a fruit', type=click.Choice(choices, case_sensitive=False))
print(choice)

Provide a fruit (apple, peach, orange): 
 banana
Error: invalid choice: banana. (choose from apple, peach, orange)
Provide a fruit (apple, peach, orange): 
 OrAnGe
orange

Working with paths and files:

Using a click.Path type we can check for existing paths and also resolve them:

path = click.prompt('Provide path', type=click.Path(exists=True, resolve_path=True))
print(path)

Provide path: 
 nonexistent
Error: Path "nonexistent" does not exist.
Provide path: 
 existing_folder
'/path/to/existing_folder

Reading and writing files can be done by click.File:

file = click.prompt('In which file to write data?', type=click.File('w'))
with file.open():
    file.write('Hello!')
# More info about `lazy=True` at:
# https://click.palletsprojects.com/en/7.x/arguments/#file-opening-safety
file = click.prompt('Which file you wanna read?', type=click.File(lazy=True))
with file.open():
    print(file.read())

In which file to write data?: 
         # <-- provided an empty string, which is an illegal name for a file
In which file to write data?: 
 some_file.txt
Which file you wanna read?: 
 nonexistent.txt
Error: Could not open file: nonexistent.txt: No such file or directory
Which file you wanna read?: 
 some_file.txt
Hello!

Other examples:

Password confirmation:

password = click.prompt('Enter password', hide_input=True, confirmation_prompt=True)
print(password)

Enter password: 
 ······
Repeat for confirmation: 
 ·
Error: the two entered values do not match
Enter password: 
 ······
Repeat for confirmation: 
 ······
qwerty

Default values:

In this case, simply pressing Enter (or whatever key you use) without entering a value, will give you a default one:

number = click.prompt('Please enter a number', type=int, default=42)
print(number)

Please enter a number [42]: 
 a
Error: a is not a valid integer
Please enter a number [42]: 
 
42

So, I was messing around with something similar to this recently, and I came up with the following solution, which uses a way of getting input that rejects junk, before it's even checked in any logical way.

read_single_keypress() courtesy https://stackoverflow.com/a/6599441/4532996

def read_single_keypress() -> str:
    """Waits for a single keypress on stdin.
    -- from :: https://stackoverflow.com/a/6599441/4532996
    """

    import termios, fcntl, sys, os
    fd = sys.stdin.fileno()
    # save old state
    flags_save = fcntl.fcntl(fd, fcntl.F_GETFL)
    attrs_save = termios.tcgetattr(fd)
    # make raw - the way to do this comes from the termios(3) man page.
    attrs = list(attrs_save) # copy the stored version to update
    # iflag
    attrs[0] &= ~(termios.IGNBRK | termios.BRKINT | termios.PARMRK
                  | termios.ISTRIP | termios.INLCR | termios. IGNCR
                  | termios.ICRNL | termios.IXON )
    # oflag
    attrs[1] &= ~termios.OPOST
    # cflag
    attrs[2] &= ~(termios.CSIZE | termios. PARENB)
    attrs[2] |= termios.CS8
    # lflag
    attrs[3] &= ~(termios.ECHONL | termios.ECHO | termios.ICANON
                  | termios.ISIG | termios.IEXTEN)
    termios.tcsetattr(fd, termios.TCSANOW, attrs)
    # turn off non-blocking
    fcntl.fcntl(fd, fcntl.F_SETFL, flags_save & ~os.O_NONBLOCK)
    # read a single keystroke
    try:
        ret = sys.stdin.read(1) # returns a single character
    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        ret = 0
    finally:
        # restore old state
        termios.tcsetattr(fd, termios.TCSAFLUSH, attrs_save)
        fcntl.fcntl(fd, fcntl.F_SETFL, flags_save)
    return ret

def until_not_multi(chars) -> str:
    """read stdin until !(chars)"""
    import sys
    chars = list(chars)
    y = ""
    sys.stdout.flush()
    while True:
        i = read_single_keypress()
        _ = sys.stdout.write(i)
        sys.stdout.flush()
        if i not in chars:
            break
        y += i
    return y

def _can_you_vote() -> str:
    """a practical example:
    test if a user can vote based purely on keypresses"""
    print("can you vote? age : ", end="")
    x = int("0" + until_not_multi("0123456789"))
    if not x:
        print("\nsorry, age can only consist of digits.")
        return
    print("your age is", x, "\nYou can vote!" if x >= 18 else "Sorry! you can't vote")

_can_you_vote()

You can find the complete module here.

Example:

$ ./input_constrain.py
can you vote? age : a
sorry, age can only consist of digits.
$ ./input_constrain.py 
can you vote? age : 23<RETURN>
your age is 23
You can vote!
$ _

Note that the nature of this implementation is it closes stdin as soon as something that isn't a digit is read. I didn't hit enter after a, but I needed to after the numbers.

You could merge this with the thismany() function in the same module to only allow, say, three digits.

I am a big fan of Unix philosophy "Do one thing and do it well". Capturing user input and validating it are two separate steps:

• prompting the user for input with get_input until the input is ok
• validating using a validator function that can be passed to get_input

It can be kept as simple as (Python 3.8+, with the walrus operator):

def get_input(
    prompt="Enter a value: ",
    validator=lambda x: True,
    error_message="Invalid input. Please try again.",
):
    while not validator(value := input(prompt)):
        print(error_message)
    return value

def is_positive_int(value):
    try:
        return int(value) >= 0
    except ValueError:
        return False

if __name__ == "__main__":
    val = get_input("Give a positive number: ", is_positive_int)
    print(f"OK, thanks for {val}")

Sample run:

Give a positive number: -5
Invalid input. Please try again.
Give a positive number: asdf
Invalid input. Please try again.
Give a positive number:
Invalid input. Please try again.
Give a positive number: 42
OK, thanks for 42

---

In Python < 3.8 you could use get_input like this:

def get_input(
    prompt="Enter a value: ",
    validator=lambda x: True,
    error_message="Invalid input. Please try again.",
):
    while True:
        value = input(prompt)
        if validator(value):
            return value
        print(error_message)

You might also handle KeyboardInterrupt and print a friendly exit message before terminating the application. A counter can be used to limit the allowed retries if desired.

Use try-except to handle the error and repeat it again:

while True:
    try:
        age = int(input("Please enter your age: "))
        if age >= 18:
            print("You are able to vote in the United States!")
        else:
            print("You are not able to vote in the United States.")
    except Exception as e:
        print("please enter number")

Building upon Daniel Q's and Patrick Artner's excellent suggestions, here is an even more generalized solution.

# Assuming Python3
import sys

class ValidationError(ValueError):  # thanks Patrick Artner
    pass

def validate_input(prompt, cast=str, cond=(lambda x: True), onerror=None):
    if onerror==None: onerror = {}
    while True:
        try:
            data = cast(input(prompt))
            if not cond(data): raise ValidationError
            return data
        except tuple(onerror.keys()) as e:  # thanks Daniel Q
            print(onerror[type(e)], file=sys.stderr)

I opted for explicit if and raise statements instead of an assert, because assertion checking may be turned off, whereas validation should always be on to provide robustness.

This may be used to get different kinds of input, with different validation conditions. For example:

# No validation, equivalent to simple input:
anystr = validate_input("Enter any string: ")

# Get a string containing only letters:
letters = validate_input("Enter letters: ",
    cond=str.isalpha,
    onerror={ValidationError: "Only letters, please!"})

# Get a float in [0, 100]:
percentage = validate_input("Percentage? ",
    cast=float, cond=lambda x: 0.0<=x<=100.0,
    onerror={ValidationError: "Must be between 0 and 100!",
             ValueError: "Not a number!"})

Or, to answer the original question:

age = validate_input("Please enter your age: ",
        cast=int, cond=lambda a:0<=a<150,
        onerror={ValidationError: "Enter a plausible age, please!",
                 ValueError: "Enter an integer, please!"})
if age >= 18: 
    print("You are able to vote in the United States!")
else:
    print("You are not able to vote in the United States.")

def validate_age(age):
    if age >=0 :
        return True
    return False

while True:
    try:
        age = int(raw_input("Please enter your age:"))
        if validate_age(age): break
    except ValueError:
        print "Error: Invalid age."

Try this one:-

def takeInput(required):
  print 'ooo or OOO to exit'
  ans = raw_input('Enter: ')

  if not ans:
      print "You entered nothing...!"
      return takeInput(required) 

      ##  FOR Exit  ## 
  elif ans in ['ooo', 'OOO']:
    print "Closing instance."
    exit()

  else:
    if ans.isdigit():
      current = 'int'
    elif set('[~!@#$%^&*()_+{}":/\']+$').intersection(ans):
      current = 'other'
    elif isinstance(ans,basestring):
      current = 'str'        
    else:
      current = 'none'

  if required == current :
    return ans
  else:
    return takeInput(required)

## pass the value in which type you want [str/int/special character(as other )]
print "input: ", takeInput('str')

Use "while" statement till user enter a true value and if the input value is not a number or it's a null value skip it and try to ask again and so on. In example I tried to answer truly your question. If we suppose that our age is between 1 and 150 then input value accepted, else it's a wrong value. For terminating program, the user can use 0 key and enter it as a value. > Note: Read comments top of code.

# If your input value is only a number then use "Value.isdigit() == False".
# If you need an input that is a text, you should remove "Value.isdigit() == False".
def Input(Message):
    Value = None
    while Value == None or Value.isdigit() == False:
        try:        
            Value = str(input(Message)).strip()
        except Exception:
            Value = None
    return Value

# Example:
age = 0
# If we suppose that our age is between 1 and 150 then input value accepted,
# else it's a wrong value.
while age <=0 or age >150:
    age = int(Input("Please enter your age: "))
    # For terminating program, the user can use 0 key and enter it as an a value.
    if age == 0:
        print("Terminating ...")
        exit(0)
        
if age >= 18 and age <=150: 
    print("You are able to vote in the United States!")
else:
    print("You are not able to vote in the United States.")

Good question! You can try the following code for this. =)

This code uses ast.literal_eval() to find the data type of the input (age). Then it follows the following algorithm:

>1. Ask user to input her/his age.

> 1.1. If age is float or int data type:

> - Check if age>=18. If age>=18, print appropriate output and exit.

> - Check if 0<age<18. If 0<age<18, print appropriate output and exit.

> - If age<=0, ask the user to input a valid number for age again, (i.e. go back to step 1.)

> 1.2. If age is not float or int data type, then ask user to input her/his age again (i.e. go back to step 1.)

Here is the code.

from ast import literal_eval

''' This function is used to identify the data type of input data.'''
def input_type(input_data):
    try:
	    return type(literal_eval(input_data))
    except (ValueError, SyntaxError):
	    return str

flag = True

while(flag):
    age = raw_input("Please enter your age: ")

    if input_type(age)==float or input_type(age)==int:
	    if eval(age)>=18: 
		    print("You are able to vote in the United States!") 
		    flag = False 
	    elif eval(age)>0 and eval(age)<18: 
		    print("You are not able to vote in the United States.") 
		    flag = False
	    else: print("Please enter a valid number as your age.")

    else: print("Sorry, I didn't understand that.")	

You can always apply simple if-else logic and add one more if logic to your code along with a for loop.

while True:
     age = int(input("Please enter your age: "))
     if (age >= 18)  : 
         print("You are able to vote in the United States!")
     if (age < 18) & (age > 0):
         print("You are not able to vote in the United States.")
     else:
         print("Wrong characters, the input must be numeric")
         continue

This will be an infinite loo and you would be asked to enter the age, indefinitely.

While a try/except block will work, a much faster and cleaner way to accomplish this task would be to use str.isdigit().

while True:
    age = input("Please enter your age: ")
    if age.isdigit():
        age = int(age)
        break
    else:
        print("Invalid number '{age}'. Try again.".format(age=age))

if age >= 18: 
    print("You are able to vote in the United States!")
else:
    print("You are not able to vote in the United States.")

You can write more general logic to allow user to enter only specific number of times, as the same use-case arises in many real-world applications.

def getValidInt(iMaxAttemps = None):
  iCount = 0
  while True:
    # exit when maximum attempt limit has expired
    if iCount != None and iCount > iMaxAttemps:
       return 0     # return as default value

    i = raw_input("Enter no")
    try:
       i = int(i)
    except ValueError as e:
       print "Enter valid int value"
    else:
       break

    return i

age = getValidInt()
# do whatever you want to do.

You can make the input statement a while True loop so it repeatedly asks for the users input and then break that loop if the user enters the response you would like. And you can use try and except blocks to handle invalid responses.

while True:

    var = True

    try:
        age = int(input("Please enter your age: "))
        
    except ValueError:
        print("Invalid input.")
        var = False
        
    if var == True:
        if age >= 18:
                print("You are able to vote in the United States.")
                break
        else:
            print("You are not able to vote in the United States.")

The var variable is just so that if the user enters a string instead of a integer the program wont return "You are not able to vote in the United States."

One more solution for using input validation using a customized ValidationError and a (optional) range validation for integer inputs:

class ValidationError(ValueError): 
    """Special validation error - its message is supposed to be printed"""
    pass

def RangeValidator(text,num,r):
    """Generic validator - raises 'text' as ValidationError if 'num' not in range 'r'."""
    if num in r:
        return num
    raise ValidationError(text)
            
def ValidCol(c): 
    """Specialized column validator providing text and range."""
    return RangeValidator("Columns must be in the range of 0 to 3 (inclusive)", 
                          c, range(4))

def ValidRow(r): 
    """Specialized row validator providing text and range."""
    return RangeValidator("Rows must be in the range of 5 to 15(exclusive)",
                          r, range(5,15))
    

Usage:

def GetInt(text, validator=None):
    """Aks user for integer input until a valid integer is given. If provided, 
    a 'validator' function takes the integer and either raises a 
    ValidationError to be printed or returns the valid number. 
    Non integers display a simple error message."""
    print()
    while True:
        n = input(text)
        try:
            n = int(n)

            return n if validator is None else validator(n)

        except ValueError as ve:
            # prints ValidationErrors directly - else generic message:
            if isinstance(ve, ValidationError):
            	print(ve)
            else:
                print("Invalid input: ", n)
    

column = GetInt("Pleased enter column: ", ValidCol)
row = GetInt("Pleased enter row: ", ValidRow)
print( row, column)

Output:

Pleased enter column: 22
Columns must be in the range of 0 to 3 (inclusive)
Pleased enter column: -2
Columns must be in the range of 0 to 3 (inclusive)
Pleased enter column: 2
Pleased enter row: a
Invalid input:  a
Pleased enter row: 72
Rows must be in the range of 5 to 15(exclusive)
Pleased enter row: 9  

9, 2

                      

Persistent user input using recursive function:

String

def askName():
    return input("Write your name: ").strip() or askName()

name = askName()

Integer

def askAge():
    try: return int(input("Enter your age: "))
    except ValueError: return askAge()

age = askAge()

and finally, the question requirement:

def askAge():
    try: return int(input("Enter your age: "))
    except ValueError: return askAge()

age = askAge()

responseAge = [
    "You are able to vote in the United States!",
    "You are not able to vote in the United States.",
][int(age < 18)]

print(responseAge)

You can try to convert it to a integer, but ask the user to repeat if it doesn't work.

while True:
    age = input('Please enter your age: ')
    try:
        age_int = int(age)
        if age_int >= 18:
            print('You can vote in the United States!')
        else:
            print('You cannot vote in the United States.')
        break
    except:
        print('Please enter a meaningful answer.')
        

The while loop runs as long as the user has not inputted a meaningful answer, but breaks if it makes sense.

Use isdigit() to check if a string represents a valid integer.

You could use a recursive function.

def ask():
	answer = input("Please enter amount to convert: ")
	if not answer.isdigit():
		print("Invalid")
		return ask()

	return int(answer)

Gdp = ask()

Or a while loop

while True:
	answer = input("Please enter amount to convert: ")
	if not answer.isdigit():
		print("Invalid")
		continue

	Gbp = int(answer)

Below code may help.

age=(lambda i,f: f(i,f))(input("Please enter your age: "),lambda i,f: i if i.isdigit() else f(input("Please enter your age: "),f))
print("You are able to vote in the united states" if int(age)>=18 else "You are not able to vote in the united states",end='')

If you want to have maximum tries, say 3, use below code

age=(lambda i,n,f: f(i,n,f))(input("Please enter your age: "),1,lambda i,n,f: i if i.isdigit() else (None if n==3 else f(input("Please enter your age: "),n+1,f)))
print("You are able to vote in the united states" if age and int(age)>=18 else "You are not able to vote in the united states",end='')

Note: This uses recursion.