Function Outputs None instead of Return

Question

I'm new to functions and cannot figure out why this returns 'None' Essentially the State is a number, so this should input the state and spit out the population. I'll change the format to be more vague and helpful for all once I understand better. Thanks!

def ca_pov(state, spending=0):
 state = person[person.state==state].copy(deep=True)
 total_population = state.weight.sum()
 return
 total_population
print(ca_pov(11))

• mama: you need returnvalue on the same line :)
• azro: Also you can inline it return person[person.state==state].copy(deep=True).weight.sum()
• FaCoffee: I'll chip in with some explanation as to why you were getting None. When you use the return call, you have to specify what you want to be returned on the same line as return. In your example, you had return and then your desired outcome was specified in a new line. This made Python think that you did not want anything to be returned, hence None. Hope it helps.

Answer 1

the total_population was not returned. You have to write the return keyword and the data you want to return next to it.

def ca_pov(state, spending=0):
 state = person[person.state==state].copy(deep=True)
 total_population = state.weight.sum()
 return total_population
print(ca_pov(11))

• Aleksander Ikleiw: @Nate Go if this works for you please accept my question and upvote it :)