Putting the fun back in function - challenge task 1 of 2 - very lost

Question

I am very lost, I don't feel like this question was addressed in the previous videos. I don't know how to make a function take a list and I'm not sure exactly what this question is asking me to do. Do I create a list containing 1, 2 and 3, as in: my_list = [1, 2, 3] and then create a 'for' loop as in: 'for item in my_list', and then add each number up inside the loop during each iteration? I've been spending hours on this and haven't been able to get anywhere. I saw from a previous question on this topic that you can use the built in sum() function to add up all the items in the list, but don't understand how a user function would be needed if i can just add everything up with a built-in function. Any help would be appreciated.

functions.py

# add_list([1, 2, 3]) should return 6
# summarize([1, 2, 3]) should return "The sum of [1, 2, 3] is 6."
# Note: both functions will only take *one* argument each.
my_list = [1, 2, 3]

def add_list(num):
  my_sum = int(0)
  for item in my_list:
    my_sum = my_sum + item

print(my_sum)

Answer 1 · 2015-07-24T13:55:45Z

July 24, 2015 1:55pm

add_list([1, 2, 3]) should return 6

summarize([1, 2, 3]) should return "The sum of [1, 2, 3] is 6."

Note: both functions will only take one argument each.

my_list = [1, 2, 3]

def add_list(num): my_sum = int(0)

for item in my_list:
    my_sum = my_sum + item

return my_sum

you can print my_sum from the function or return the value then print the function using

<add_list(my_list)>

Answer 2 · 2015-07-24T20:08:40Z

July 24, 2015 8:08pm

It looks like you just need to return the result of your function, as pointed out by man odell. Then, try to use this add_list function to complete the second task

def add_list(list1):
    tot = 0
    for item in list1:
        tot += item
    return tot

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