return statement in functions

[hokieghal99]

Jp Calderone wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 23, 2003 at 11:44:39AM -0500, hokieghal99 wrote:
> 
>>[snip]
>>
>>That works, but it only returns the first item in the list. The 
>>functions are returning a list of paths or of files/dirs. For example, 
>>the function 'clean_dir_names' should return a complete list of 
>>directory names that it has removed bad characters from.
>>
>>def clean_dir_names(path):
>>   for root, dirs, files in os.walk(path, topdown=False):
>>      for dname in dirs:
>>         new_dname = re.sub(bad,'-' ,dname)
>>         if new_dname != dname:
>>            newpath = os.path.join(root, new_dname)
>>            oldpath = os.path.join(root, dname)
>>            os.renames(oldpath, newpath)
>>         return new_dname
>>
>>How do I make the report function see all of the contents of the list 
>>and not just the first item of the list?
>>
> 
> 
>   No.  "return new_dname" terminates execution of the function.  If you want
> many results, you need to collect them in a list and return the list, or use
> a generator.
> 
>   Jp

That's odd, it seems silly to terminate something that should be 
recursive (os.walk) before it's finished being recursive. What's the 
logic behind that idea?