how to think like a computer scientist

[Colin J. Williams]

Brian van den Broek wrote:
> john boy said unto the world upon 2005-11-11 22:25:
> 
>> Question for the following program: sec 5.5
>>  
>> def factorial (n):
>>    if n == 0:
>>       return 1
>>    else:
>>       recurse = factorial (n-1)
>>       result = n * recurse
>>       return result
>>  
>> How come whenever I state the function with "n" given a value it 
>> prints no results in the interpreter for EX:
> 
> 
> <snip>
> 
> 
>>  
>> So instead I have to give a "print" command to make the result appear 
>> in the interpreter for EX:
> 
> 
> <snip>
> 
>> Is this correct....should I have to give a print command??
> 
> 
> 
> Hey,
> 
> I assume you mean when you run it as a script; when I run it as the 
> interactive prompt, I get output:
> 
> IDLE 1.1.2
>  >>> def factorial (n):
>     if n == 0:
>           return 1
>         else:
>         recurse = factorial (n-1)
>         result = n * recurse
>         return result
> 
>  >>> factorial(3)
> 6
> 
> In general, it would be bad if the interpreter decided to print 
> everything you asked it to compute. The function returns the result of 
> the factorial(n) call, and it is up to your code to decide what to do 
> with it. If the only use is to print it, then
> 
> print factorial(3)
> 
> might be what you want. But it is also possible you'd want to store the 
> result for further computation, and would find the print an unwanted 
> 'feature'. So,
> 
> important_for_later = factorial(some_num)
> 
> Best,
> 
> Brian vdB
> 
Looks OK to me, prints 120.
Could be a little simpler:
def factorial (n):
    if n == 0:
       return 1
    else:
       return n * factorial (n-1)
print factorial(5)

Colin W.