What's wrong with my python function?

Question

I am trying to design a recursive function that accepts two arguments from a user and puts them into parameters x and y. The function should return the value of x times y. My code is failing to execute correctly because of how I am trying to pass the x and y variable in the return statement but I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong.

def main():
 #get the user to input a two integers and defines them as x and y
 x = int(input("Please enter a positive integer: "))
 y = int(input("Please enter a second positive integer: "))
 #make sure the integer selection falls within the parameters
 if (y == 0):
 return 0
 return x+(x,y-1)
#call the main function
main()

My traceback says:

return x+(x,y-1) TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'int' and 'tuple'

• donkopotamus: What are you hoping to compute with x + (x, y - 1) ?
• Part_Time_Nerd: @donkopotamus I updated my question but the answer is, "The function should return the value of x times y."
• thc: Why not just return x*y ...? As the error says, you can't add an integer, x, to a tuple, (x,y-1).

Answer 1

`You might try something along these lines:

def main():
 #get the user to input a two integers and defines them as x and y
 x = int(input("Please enter a positive integer: "))
 y = int(input("Please enter a second positive integer: "))
 print recursive_mult(x, y)
def recursive_mult(x, y):
 if y == 0:
 return 0
 return x + recursive_mult(x, y - 1)

The error you're seeing is caused by trying to add an int value x to the tuple of (x, y - 1), where instead you probably want to be making a recursive call to some function with these values and add the result to x.

• Part_Time_Nerd: Thanks caffreyd I had something almost identical to yours and @Yoav Glazner answer but I was getting an error due to how I had the print statement. I corrected your print statement with appropriate brackets and accepted your answer.

Answer 2

def main():
 #get the user to input a two integers and defines them as x and y
 x = int(input("Please enter a positive integer: "))
 y = int(input("Please enter a second positive integer: "))
 print( mul(x, y) )
def mul(x, y):
 if y==0: return 0
 return x + mul(x, y-1)