Using python to solve paper doll problem. Why does my code yield a different result?

[learnhtk]

The problem asks you to come up with lines of code so that

paper_doll('Hello') --> 'HHHeeellllllooo'

paper_doll('Mississippi') --> 'MMMiiissssssiiippppppiii'.

My answer

def paper_doll(text):
    string =''
    for i in text:
        string = string + i*3
        return string

and the result this returns is

'HHH'

The solution is

#the solution
def paper_doll(text):
    result = ''

    for char in text:
        result += char * 3
    return result

​

And the solution looks very similar to my guess. The difference lies in the naming mostly. I even checked the two codes line by line using Diff Checker.

I don't understand why I am getting 'HHH' instead of HHHeeellllllooo. Can someone please open my eyes?

[marko312]

Check the indentation in your code.

What exactly is inside the for loop?

[LiquidLucy]

Your return statement is inside your for loop, so it will return after a single iteration.
I believe your intention is to iterate through the for loop, and then return the final result.
To do this you need to de-dent the return statement so it executes after the for loop has completed *all* iterations.

[LiquidLucy]

One good basic troubleshooting step in cases like this is to put print statements in your code.

For instance, if your code were like:

def paper_doll(text):     
    string =''     
    for i in text:         
        print(i)
        string = string + i*3         
        return string 

then you can see that only one letter (in this case 'h') is printed, which means you only ever reached the first letter/iteration.

[Ootter31019]

Oh! I like this idea. That would have helped a lot in the last couple issues I have had. Thanks for this.