Indentation error in Python Program [duplicate]

Question

This question already has answers here:

I'm getting an IndentationError (or a TabError). How do I fix it? (5 answers)

Closed 2 years ago.

My code is -

def factorial(number):
result = 1
while number > 0:
result = result*number
number = number- 1
return result
in_variable = input("Enter a number to calculate the factorial of")
print factorial(in_variable)

I am getting an indentation error on line :

number = number- 1

My error is: Unexpected indent

Why is that?

Regards,

Nupur

• TigerhawkT3: Ironically, you stripped out all the indentation. Reproduce it accurately so that it can be investigated.
• Oliver W.: Can you post your code with the actual formatting you're using? As you're no doubt aware, in Python indentation matters. Don't forget that spaces and tabs cannot be mixed either.

Answer 1

The code you've posted shows no indentation at all. Remember, for Python, indentation matters.

After indenting your code, you are still facing two bugs:

1. you are using input, which means you are using Python3 OR you should have been using raw_input. See this discussion, which explains the difference very well. If you are using Python3, then it's not correct to use the print statement: you should be using the print function. If you're using Python2, you should be using raw_input.
2. Your function, factorial, expects a number, yet you are passing it a string (which is the return value of raw_input and input). Convert to int first.

This code is properly indented and works on Python3. Use raw_input rather than input if you're working with Python2.

def factorial(number):
 result = 1
 while number > 0:
 result = result*number
 number = number- 1
 return result
in_variable = input("Enter a number to calculate the factorial of")
print(factorial(int(in_variable)))

Answer 2

def factorial(number):
 result = 1
 while number > 0:
 result = result * number
 number = number- 1
 return result
in_variable = int(input("Enter a number to calculate the factorial of"))
print(factorial(in_variable))

You need to convert the input from str to int.

Answer 3

If you are not sure your indention str of int. You can easily check it with type(in_variable) and if it is str, you should change it to int with in_variable = int(input("Enter a number to calculate the factorial of"))

def factorial(number):
result = 1
while number > 0:
 result = result*number
 number = number- 1
return result

in_variable = input("Enter a number to calculate the factorial of")