Error while calling functions within a function (Python)

Question

I'm getting errors saying that there is a syntax error for the "makeShortest" function that I defined.

• What is the problem here?
• Are there any other issues that might make this function not work at runtime?

def solution(A):
 idxDict = defaultdict(list)
 for i in range(len(A)):
 idxDict[A[i]].append(i)
 ans = -1
 A.sort()
 if len(A) <= 1:
 return ans
 hasAdj = 0
 for i in range(len(A) - 1):
 if A[i] != A[i + 1]:
 hasAdj += 1
 if hasAdj == 1:
 ans = makeShortest(idxDict[A[i]], idxDict[A[i + 1]])
 else:
 ans = min(ans, makeShortest(idxDict[A[i]], idxDict[A[i + 1]]))
 
 return ans
def makeShortest (list1, list2):
 ans = abs(list1[0] - list2[0])
 for k in range(len(list1)):
 for l in range(len(list2)):
 ans = min(ans, abs(list1[k] - list2[l])
 return ans

• Matthew: What is the exact error you're receiving?
• jginso7: Sorry, that's a typo. The error is on def makeShortest (list1, list2) with "pylint(syntax-error)

Answer 1

Is ans2 in this line the error?

ans = min(ans2, abs(list1[k] - idxDict[list2[l]))

• jginso7: Sorry, that's a typo. The error is on def makeShortest (list1, list2) with "invalid syntax(<unknown>, line 28) pylint(syntax-error) [28,34] " and line 28 is def makeShortest (list1, list2)
• Matthew: I found another error in the same line: ans = min(ans2, abs(list1[k] - idxDict[list2[l])) The idxDict is missing a closing ] so it should be ans = min(ans2, abs(list1[k] - idxDict[list2[l]]))
• jginso7: So I fixed my code for makeShortest() like how I did on the above question, but now I got error on the return statement of makeShortest with message "invalid syntax(<unknown>, line 33) pylint(syntax-error) [33, 6]
• Matthew: On the line 32 the code is missing a closing parenthesis ans = min(ans, abs(list1[k] - list2[l]) It should be ans = min(ans, abs(list1[k] - list2[l]))