Syntax error defining a simple function

Question

Why this simple function is not working in python 2.7?

>>> def a(b,h):
...     return b*h/2
... a(3,4)
  File "<stdin>", line 3
    a(3,4)
    ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
>>>

this is not going to give you the answer you expect even once you fix the syntax errors — Joran Beasley
– Joran Beasley, Commented Dec 8, 2015 at 18:25
@JoranBeasley: sure it is. The answer is 6, which is correct. — Martijn Pieters
– Martijn Pieters, Commented Dec 8, 2015 at 18:32

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:44:41Z

3

In the interactive interpreter, you'll need to add a blank line to close off the statement before the function is defined:

>>> def a(b,h):
...     return b*h/2
...
>>>

Once you do, a new >>> prompt appears and you can enter the a(3,4) call.

From the Python reference documentation on Interactive input:

Note that a (top-level) compound statement must be followed by a blank line in interactive mode; this is needed to help the parser detect the end of the input.

Note that you may run into issues with integer division here; in Python 2 if both operands to the / division operator are integers, you'll get an integer result. See How can I force division to be floating point? Division keeps rounding down to 0 for work-arounds.

edited May 23, 2017 at 11:44

CommunityBot

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answered Dec 8, 2015 at 18:15

Martijn Pieters

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3 Comments

Joran Beasley Over a year ago

although unless there is a from __future__ import ... this still wont give OP expected answer

Martijn Pieters Over a year ago

@JoranBeasley: 3 * 4 / 2 works just fine, because 12 is divisible by 2.

Joran Beasley Over a year ago

:P ok so it works for some cases (including the one the OP posted :P )

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