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Brenda Darden Wilkerson
1,581 Pointshow do i create a function
Need help
1 Answer
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,457 PointsLet's step through the challenge Task 1.
Task 1 says "Make a function named add_list that takes a list. The function should then add all of the items in the list together and return the total. Assume the list contains only numbers. You'll probably want to use a for loop. You will not need to use input().
Step 1; "Make a function named add_list that takes a list...."
# making (or defining) a function is done with the keyword 'def' followed by
# the name of the function, the list of arguments, and a colon ':'. Here I am
# choosing to call the argument 'lst' (I don't use 'list' since it's a builtin function name)
def add_list(lst):
pass #temporary code block for now....
Step 2: " The function should then add all of the items in the list together..."
# replacing the temporary code block 'pass' with loop to add the list items together
def add_list(lst):
# set our current total to 0.
total = 0
# for each item in the passed-in argument 'lst'...
for item in lst:
# added each item to the total
total = total + item
Step 3: "and return the total."
# Add return statement
def add_list(lst):
# set our current total to 0.
total = 0
# for each item in the passed-in argument 'lst'...
for item in lst:
# added each item to the total
total = total + item
# return current total value
return total