why does function remove my first item from my list?

Hi Alan,

Please ensure you follow the instructions in the Markdown Cheatsheet and use the preview button to make sure your post looks like you expect. It's much easier to follow properly formatted code than code where some of it is in markdown and some of it is in raw text.

This is how your code should look when properly formatted:

books = ["Learning Python", "Automate the boring stuff", "Python for Data Analysis", "fluent Python"]
video_games = ["Zelda", "Splatoon 2", "Super Mario"]

def display_wishes(title, wishes):
     print(title + ":")
     print("=========>", wishes[0], "<==========")
     for wish in wishes:

         print("*" + wish)

display_wishes(Books, books)

display_wishes(Video_games, video_games)

Look how much easier to follow it is.

Next, your code does not have the output you describe. Here is the traceback from executing the code you provided:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "temp.py", line 11, in <module>
    display_wishes(Books, books)
NameError: name 'Books' is not defined

The reason for that error is that your function calls use Books and Video_games instead of "Books" and "Videos Games".

When we correct those errors, this is the output we get:

Books:
=========> Learning Python <==========
*Learning Python
*Automate the boring stuff
*Python for Data Analysis
*fluent Python
Videos games:
=========> Zelda <==========
*Zelda
*Splatoon 2
*Super Mario

This seems to be exactly the output you wanted to get?

This is with Python version 3.6.5, which Python are you using?

Cheers

Alex

Hi Alan,

I'm not aware of any version of Python where if you call a function with an undefined variable name it will be automatically transformed into a string. That, and the unexpected behaviour that you described (different from the behaviour I saw in Python v3.6.5) is why I asked which version of Python you were using.

I've pasted exactly the result of running your code in my answer and specified the version of Python that gave that result. If you run the code you provided in the version of Python that I stated, you will get the output I posted, not the output you describe. Thus the answer to your question, at least for current Python, is that it doesn't do what you describe happening to you, it does exactly what you say it should do (prints the first item in both the title and body) (as long as you fix the bugs in your function calls first).

However, I believe you when you say that what you've pasted into the question is exactly the code you ran, and exactly the response you got. So in order to provide any other answer to your question than the answer I've already given you, I'd need to know which version of Python you are seeing this in.

Cheers

Alex