Can't figure out how to calculate user inputted integer to factorial

Question

I started an introduction to Python course in september and I've barely been keeping up. This week the assignment has left me in a fritz. I have gotten help from my teacher and tried my best to use my resources before its overdue so I'm getting a little bit of an understanding but it just isn't clicking for me. I've made a lot of corrections over the week so my code is looking better than it was but I still don't understand what I'm doing wrong.

Instead of creating a factorial for n it is just displaying n as the input value from the user. I have tried entering factorial(n) on various lines and it only gives me an EOF error. Could someone explain what I'm doing wrong? my belief is that i need to call the factorial function, but I can't seem to format it correctly.

def factorial(n):
    if n==0:
        return 1
    else:
        recurse = factorial(n-1)
        result = n * recurse
        return result




done=False
while not done:
    n=input('Enter a Positive Integer \n>>>')
    try:
        n=int(n)
        if n>=0:
            done=True
    except:
        print('try again')

print('n is ', n)

You say you "have tried entering factorial(n) on various lines" - can you give us an example of the one attempt you thought most likely to succeed? What result did that give you and what did you expect? — Grismar, Oct 11 '20 at 23:37
Does this answer your question? [Function for Factorial in Python](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5136447/function-for-factorial-in-python) — Harshit, Oct 12 '20 at 07:39

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 11 '20 at 23:42

Simple fix.

def factorial(n):
    if n==0:
        return 1
    else:
        recurse = factorial(n-1)
        result = n * recurse
        return result




done=False
while not done:
    n=input('Enter a Positive Integer \n>>>')
    try:
        n=int(n)
        if n>=0:
            done=True
    except:
        print('try again')

print('n is ', factorial(n))

Hadar Shavit · Answer 2 · 2020-10-11T23:56:19.943

0

In order to get the factorial of n you need to call the function. For example: res = factorial(n)

edited Oct 11 '20 at 23:56

answered Oct 11 '20 at 23:39

Hadar Shavit

107
1
11

1

okay thank you. I simply wasnt applying the function in the print statement I'm still extremely new to python. Newbie mistake – flashdrivegordon47 Oct 11 '20 at 23:41
1

PLEASE don't store the results of the `factorial()` function call in a variable called `factorial`! – MattDMo Oct 11 '20 at 23:53

Can't figure out how to calculate user inputted integer to factorial

2 Answers2