Question

I am trying to learn basic python and I can’t seem to be able to return values using a while loop. I am copying the syntax from guides I am reading but it doesn’t seem to work when I run it. I may have a different version, I am not sure.

Anyways I was just messing around and got this code

def fact(x):
 count = 1
 sum = 0
 while count <= x:
     sum =  count * sum
     count + 1
 else:
     return sum   

I don’t even know if this correctly computes factorial, I don’t care, I am just trying to get it to return a value. What is wrong? Why can’t I use return? I am not sure what is wrong, when I replace return with

       display,

it still doesn’t work.

Answer 1

def fact(x):
    count = 1
    sumi = 1
    while count <= x:
        sumi =  count * sumi
        count = count + 1

    return sumi

Some mistakes here :

• sumi = 0 at the beginning is wrong, it will make your function always returns 0
• count + 1 does not change the value of count if you don’t assign it to anything
• put your return statement after the while. When the loop is done it will return the value of sumi