Why I am getting different results for returning versus printing in a loop?

Question

def myarray(num_list):
    for item in num_list:
        return item

def myarray(num_list):
    for item in num_list:
        print (item)

When I run myarray([2,4,6]) the first returns only 2 while the second prints all the items:

2
4
6

Why? What's the difference?

Does this answer your question? [How is returning the output of a function different from printing it?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/750136/how-is-returning-the-output-of-a-function-different-from-printing-it) — John Kugelman, Oct 06 '20 at 16:33
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score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Aug 15 '22 at 05:25

1

The first statment only returns "2" because the keyword "return" stops the rest of the loop from running.

In the second version you simply print out the content of the list for each position in the list. Thats why the second version shows all 3 numbers.

edited Aug 15 '22 at 05:25

Karl Knechtel

answered Oct 06 '20 at 16:28

FrozenAra

1 Answers1