Python: Function always returns None

Question

I have some Python code that basically looks like this:

my_start_list = ...

def process ( my_list ):
    #do some stuff

    if len(my_list) > 1:
                


        

Answer 1

Here's what happening:

1. You call process(my_start_list).
2. In the function, the if block is executed if len(my_list) > 1, and there are no return statement there. Now, since the else has not been executed and since that is the only place where you have the return clause, you return the default which is None.
3. If you have 0 or 1 elements in your list, you return that list.

To fix this, you'd want to return the list returned by process(my_list).

That is:

def process(my_list):
    # do some stuff
    ...
    if len(my_list) > 1:
        return process(my_list)
    else:
        print(my_list)
        return my_list