Running Python Script In Terminal, Nothing Prints Or Shows Up - Why?

Going through Learn Python the Hard Way, lesson 25. I try to execute the script, and the result is like so: myComp:lphw becca$ python l25 myComp:lphw becca$ Nothing prints or

Solution 1:

All your code is function definitions, but you never call any of the functions, so the code doesn't do anything.

Defining a function with the def keyword just, well, defines a function. It doesn't run it.

For example, say you just have this function in your program:

deff(x):
    print x

You're telling the program that whenever you call f, you want it to print the argument. But you're not actually telling it that you want to call f, just what to do when you do call it.

If you want to call the function on some argument, you need to do so, like this:

# defining the function f - won't print anything, since it's just a function definitiondeff(x):
    print x
# and now calling the function on the argument "Hello!" - this should print "Hello!"
f("Hello!")

So if you want your program to print something, you need to put in some calls to the functions you defined. What calls and with what arguments depends on what you want the code to do!

Solution 2:

You can execute that file in interative mode

python -i l25

And then on python prompt call your functions

words = ["Hello", "World"]
print_first_word(words)

Please install ipython for nicer user interaction