"try" not passing after "def"

Question

I'm just trying Python, and really like it! But I get stucked with try/except.

I have a code that checks raw_input for being integer, but i'd like to make it function, and it doesn't want to be it :)

here the code, I have this:

number_of_iterations = raw_input("What is your favorite number?")
try:
    int(number_of_iterations)
    is_number = True
except:
    is_number = False

while not is_number:
    print "Please put a number!"
    number_of_iterations = raw_input("What is your favorite number?")
    try:
        int(number_of_iterations)
        is_number = True
    except:
        is_number = False

I don't want to repeat myself here& So I think smth about to make function:

def check_input(input_number):
    try:
        int(input_number)
        return True
    except:
        return False

But it make an error if input a string, saying that int can't be used for strings. Looks like it does not see 'try' keyword. Can smone explain why it happens and how to prevent it in future?

Answer 1

Try this, it avoids repeating yourself without needing a def

while True:
    try:
        number_of_iterations = int(raw_input("What is your favorite integer?"))
        break
    except ValueError:
        print "Please put an integer!"

EDIT: Per the suggestions of the commenters, I have added break to the try portion of the block to eliminate the else (the original remains as a reference below). Also, I changed "number" to "integer" because "3.14" would be invalid in the above code.

This was my original suggestion. The above is fewer lines (some may call this cleaner), but I prefer the below because to me the intent is clearer.

while True:
    try:
        number_of_iterations = int(raw_input("What is your favorite integer?"))
    except ValueError:
        print "Please put an integer!"
    else:
        break