Outputting HTML unordered list python

Question

I'm attempting to write a function with python that will take an list of strings that I have defined and display them as a single string that is and HTML unordered list of said strings. So far my code is:

def pizzatoppings(self):
    toppings = ['mushrooms', 'peppers', 'pepparoni', 'steak', 'walnuts', 'goat cheese', 'eggplant', 'garlic sauce'];
    for s in toppings:
        ul += "<li>"+str(s)+"</li>"
        ul += "</ul>"
        return ul

When I attempt to run this however I get no traceback and nothing happens. Does anyone know why this is happening? I know this is probably a trivial question but I've searched for answers and cannot find a solution. Thanks!

Answer 1

Looks like you are trying to build a website. Why don't you use a template engine, like Jinja 2 for this, instead of printing a HTML snippet from a function? For that you will need a Python web application, plausibly written in one of web frameworks. I'd go for Flask here, it's simple to start working with and Jinja is a default template engine for Flask.

If you just want to generate static HTML files, I would recommend Frozen-Flask, which allows you to generate static HTML files that can be hosted without a need to deploy any Python web application on your server. Just copy generated files to your hosting and you are ready to go.

If you still want to just print a HTML snippet, your code should be something like Ealhad posted in his answer.

Also, you original code contains a few problems:

def pizzatoppings(self):
    # you don't need semicolons in Python
    toppings = ['mushrooms', 'peppers', 'pepparoni', 'steak', 'walnuts', 'goat cheese', 'eggplant', 'garlic sauce']
    # you need to initialize a "ul" variable
    ul = "<ul>"
    for s in toppings:
        ul += "<li>"+str(s)+"</li>"
    # following two lines where indented too much. In Python, indentation defines a block of code
    ul += "</ul>"
    return ul

Answer 2

I was just doing this at work today. Here's my two-line solution:

def example(elements):
    return '<ul>\n' + '\n'.join(['<li>'.rjust(8) + name + '</li>' for name in elements]) + '\n</ul>'

Which gives:

<ul>
    <li>mushrooms</li>
    <li>peppers</li>
    <li>pepparoni</li>
    <li>steak</li>
    <li>walnuts</li>
    <li>goat cheese</li>
    <li>eggplant</li>
    <li>garlic sauce</li>
</ul

This makes the generated HTML code a little easier to read.

Answer 3

I tried this instead and it was a little simpler for me

for item in items:
    html_str += "<li>" + str(item) + "</li>\n"
html_str += "</ul>"


print(html_str)