Shopping List not showing

Question

I'm running this script. It compiles perfectly but show_list() doesn't seem to return a list.

shopping_list = []


def show_help():
  print("\nSeperate each item with a comma.")
  print("Type DONE to quit, SHOW to see the current list, and HELP to get this message.")

def show_list():
  count = 1
  for item in shopping_list:
    print("{} : {}".format(count, item))
    count += 1

print("Give me a list of things you want to shop for.")
show_help()

while True:
  new_stuff = input("> ")

  if new_stuff == "DONE":
    print("\nHere's your list:")
    show_list()
    break

  elif new_stuff == "HELP":
    show_help()
    continue
  elif new_stuff == "SHOW":
    show_list()
    continue
  else:
    new_list = new_stuff.split(",")
    index = input("Add this at a certain spot? Press enter for the end of the list,"
                  "or give me a number. Currently {} items in the list.".format(len(shopping_list)))
  if index:
    spot = int(index) - 1
    for item in new_list:
      shopping_list.insert(spot, item.strip())
      spot += 1
    else:
      for item in new_list:
        shopping_list.append(item.strip())

Answer 1 · 2015-11-29T21:47:25Z

November 29, 2015 9:47pm

You are correct. show_list() doesn't return anything explicitly since there is no return statement. It appears to simply print the contents of the shopping_list

What action were you looking for?

Here's what it looks like to me:

>>> Give me a list of things you want to shop for.

Seperate each item with a comma.
Type DONE to quit, SHOW to see the current list, and HELP to get this message.
> apple, banana, cherry
Add this at a certain spot? Press enter for the end of the list,or give me a number. Currently 0 items in the list.
> SHOW
1 : apple
2 : banana
3 : cherry
>  DONE

Here's your list:
1 : apple
2 : banana
3 : cherry
>>>

Answer 2 · 2016-01-10T23:57:32Z

January 10, 2016 11:57pm

I think you're asking the same question as: https://teamtreehouse.com/community/what-is-wrong-please-help

Please refer to Aaron Kaye's answer in that question using above link. In short words, currently your last "else" is indented with the "for" 3 lines above it. To fix this you'll need to back-tab/un-indent the last "else" block of code.

if index:
    spot = int(index) - 1
    for item in new_list:
      shopping_list.insert(spot, item.strip())
      spot += 1
else:       #<------back-tabbed this else and all below lines
    for item in new_list:
      shopping_list.append(item.strip())

Answer 3 · 2015-11-29T21:49:50Z

November 29, 2015 9:49pm

First of all, I want to make sure you're clear on the difference between a function printing something out and returning a value. This function isn't supposed to return a list, it's suppose to print out all the items in the list. But if it's not printing anything, I suspect the reason is that the list was empty.

When you run the app, it prompts you: "Give me a list of things you want to shop for.". You're supposed to enter in a list of items separated by commas, and it makes a list out of them. Then if you type SHOW it will show you the list items, but if you haven't made a list it will be empty.

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