I'm fairly new to coding, but what this project is asking, is to complete the function so that if a list is empty, it returns the string "does not exist" but currently, it comes up with a bunch of errors. How do I go about adding a function within my lowest_number definition that returns a string if a list is empty (for example, list6)
def lowest_number(num_list):
lowest = num_list[0]
for x in num_list:
if x < lowest:
lowest = x
return lowest
change the lowest_number to look like:
Adding if conditon to check the length of the list
def lowest_number(num_list):
if (len(num_list) < 1): # change over here
return "does not exist" # change over here
lowest = num_list[0]
for x in num_list:
if x < lowest:
lowest = x
return lowest
You are getting an error on the line lowest = num_list[0]. As you are trying to get the first element of num_list, and it will raise an error when num_list is empty.
You can avoid this by adding an if-condition for when the list is empty. So, after modifying your code you will get
def lowest_number(num_list):
if len(num_list) == 0:
return 'does not exist'
lowest = num_list[0]
for x in num_list:
if x < lowest:
lowest = x
return lowest
This will give you the correct answer but I would recommend you use the standard min function instead of the for loop for calculating the minimum. It will make your code more readable and using standard function is considered a best practice as they are more optimized.
After this modification, a more readable code will be
def lowest_number(num_list):
if len(num_list) == 0:
return 'does not exist'
return min(num_list)
This should work. Adding two lines just after you start defining your function.
def lowest_number(num_list):
if num_list ==[]:
return "does not exist"
lowest = num_list[0]
for x in num_list:
if x < lowest:
lowest = x
return lowest
#given lists
list1 = [1, -2, 3]
list2 = [1, 2, 3, 0]
list3 = [10, 20, 30, 40]
list4 = [1.5, 1.2, 1.3]
list5 = [7, 191]
list6 = []
tests = [list1, list2, list3, list4, list5]
for num_list in tests:
print("The lowest number in", num_list, "is", lowest_number(num_list))
print("The lowest number in", list6, lowest_number(list6))
num_listis empty. If so, return the string. Otherwise, do the rest.if not num_list: return 'does not exist'