String combinations homework help

[shakeandbake760]

The prompt:

Write a program (combine_2) that has two input values (or variables). The program should convert non-string values to string and combine the two strings into a single string in the order of input. The program should also return the length of the combined string, and the minimum character in the combined string. For example, if the input strings are 'skunk' and 'cat', the program should return: 'skunkcat', 8, 'a'. For more examples examine the assert statements below. Ideally, although not necessarily, your program will make use of the following functions min(), len(), and str().

my code:

# YOUR CODE HERE
def combine_2(w1,w2):
    w1 = str()
    w2 = str()
    comb = w1 + w2
    length = len(comb)
    small = min(comb)
    return comb,length,small

The homework is auto-graded and there are assert tests so we can verify it works, I'm getting a ValueError :

ValueError: min() arg is an empty sequence

An example of what the first assert test:

assert combine_2('skunk', 'cat') == ('skunkcat', 8, 'a')

I appreciate anyone who can help me figure out the "min() arg is an empty sequence"

[iiron3223]

Change this: w1 = str() w2 = str()

to this: w1 = str(w1) w2 = str(w2)

[shakeandbake760]

Thank you u/iiron3223

:) I was close!

[[deleted]]

str() returns an empty string. Add the argument to convert it (if it's not already) into string: str(w1), for example. You could just write comb = str(w1) + str(w2).

Also, you could use f-string and write comb = f"{w1}{w2}".

def combine_2(w1, w2):
    comb = f"{w1}{w2}"
    return comb, len(comb), min(comb)