Understanding return statement in the function finding the median of numbers

Question

I have this function:

def median(numbers):
    middle = int(len(numbers)/2)
    return numbers[middle]

print(median([4, 5, 6, 7, 8]))

The writing style of this line is a bit confusing for me:

return numbers[middle]

If I am not mistaken it returns the input numbers' order in a list.
Is there a different way to read this line?

I'm not sure if that is what you asked, but the return value of your function is the value in the `middle` index inside `numbers` — CIsForCookies, Aug 23 '18 at 11:08

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 23 '18 at 11:10

1

numbers[middle] is slicing of the list, which returns the element at middle position. It returns a single element, which is at the middle index, starting from 0.

answered Aug 23 '18 at 11:10

Shivansh Nalwaya

133
6

Yes, it is. Is there other way to demonstrate it? – Fayzulla Aug 23 '18 at 11:26
1

I wouldn't call `numbers[middle]` strictly slicing. It just refers to a particular element of a list at index `middle`. – Sheldore Aug 23 '18 at 12:12

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 23 '18 at 11:13

0

This is the evaluation:

middle = int(len(numbers)/2)
middle = int(5/2)
middle = int(2.5) # or int(2) depending on Python version
middle = 2

numbers[middle]
numbers[2]
6

answered Aug 23 '18 at 11:13

Yunnosch

26,130
9
42
54

Túlio Oliveira · Answer 3 · 2018-08-23T11:21:33.723

The middle corresponds to the index at the middle of your numbers list. To find the median of the list, you can try to sort it first using numbers.sort(), like this:

def median(numbers):
    numbers.sort()
    middle = int(len(numbers)/2)
    return numbers[middle]

As an example, if numbers = [1,2,3,4,5,6], len(numbers) will evaluate to 6, which will be halved to 3 to define the middle index. Given that and knowing that a python list starting index is 0, the line return numbers[middle] will return the fourth element, which is 4.

Understanding return statement in the function finding the median of numbers

3 Answers3