Newbie confusion about 'return'

[Bruce Sass]

On Fri, 16 Mar 2001, scott wrote:

<...>
> IDLE:
<...>
> >>> find ("abcde", "d")
> 3 (in blue indicating stdout)
>
> The above is what I expected.
> ------------------------------------
>
> Running python on the file (find.py):
<...>
> find ("abcde", "d")
>
> I ran it as: $ python find.py
> *Nothing* was returned (just gave me the command prompt again), instead
> of the '3' that I expected.
> ---------------------------------------
>
> Why the difference? I thought one of the points of the interactive mode
> was to test code to see if it works before putting it in a file...
> If I add a couple of print statements in the file, I get the expected
> result (3) from running 'python find.py':

The interactive interpreter displays the value of the line when you
hit ENTER, a program will not produce output unless you ask for it
(errors excepted, of course).

> def find(str, ch):
>       index = 0
>       while index < len(str):
>              if str[index] == ch:
>                    print index
>                    return
>              index = index + 1
>       print -1
>       return
>
> find ("abcde", "d")

or do this...
---8< find.py ---
def find(str, ch):
    index = 0
    while index < len(str):
        if str[index] == ch:
             return index
        index = index + 1
    return -1

print find("abcde", 'd')
--->8---

i.e., what you had for the second piece of code, except print out
the returned value.


- Bruce