Handling HTTP status messages and multiple returns

Question

I am new to Python and have written a function which calls an API and does some processing. Please review the code and explain what is the right and pythonic way.

def fetch_storedetails(api_link, zone_id, latitude, longitude):
 """
 :param api_link:
 :param zone_id:
 :param latitude:
 :param longitude:
 :return:
 """
 import requests
 store_details = requests.get(
 api_link + '/' + str(zone_id) + '/' + str(0) + '/' + str(latitude) + '/' + str(longitude),
 headers={'language': 'en'})
 print(store_details, store_details)
 print(store_details.json)
 s_details = store_details.json()
 if store_details.status_code == 400:
 return "'Sorry , we do not deliver to your selected address at this moment as it’s out of delivery reach."
 elif store_details.status_code == 404:
 return "Stores are not available in your location"
 elif store_details.status_code == 500:
 return "Internal server error"
 else:
 print(s_details)
 store_name = []
 store_address = []
 banner_image = []
 store_rating = []
 store_id = []
 for i in s_details['data']:
 store_name.append(i['businessName'])
 store_address.append(i['storeAddr'])
 banner_image.append(i['bannerLogos']['bannerimage'])
 store_rating.append(i['businessRating'])
 store_id.append(i['businessId'])
 return store_name, store_address, banner_image, store_rating, store_id

Answer 1

• If you're going to drop in a comment block for function documentation, fill it out. Otherwise, delete it.
• Generally you shouldn't import on the inside of a function. import at the top of a file.
• Your constructed URL shouldn't use a series of +. You should be using the % formatting operator or str.format(). This will also avoid calling str(0).
• None of your elses are necessary. You return before each of them, so you can simply continue writing the rest of the function afterward.
• If I were you, I would simply return s_details['data']. Decomposing the payload into a series of lists isn't really useful, and if it is indeed useful for your application, it should be done in a separate function.
• Returning an error string to indicate an error is a bad idea. You should raise an exception instead.