🔒 calculate mode without using libraries

[crystal kindle]

the assignment is to create a function that calculates mode without using any built in libraries, and for some reason, mine doesn't print anything. no error messages or anything.

def find_mode(list):
    counts = {}
    for item in list:
        if item in counts:
            counts[item] += 1
        else:
            counts[item] = 1
    theMode = max(counts.values())
    return theMode
    
def main():
    data = [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4]
    listMode = find_mode(data)
    print("Mode:", listMode)```

[zinc crown]

@crystal kindle

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[forest verge]

Couple of thoughts, not sure which might cause the specific issue:
-list is a builtin keyword, might work if you rename that variable in find_mode.
-if item in counts - Try replacing with if item in counts.keys()

Also, as it is now, find_mode will return the highest count, not the key for that value - presumably not what you want.

[crystal kindle]

is this better?

def find_mode(lst):
    counts = {}
    for item in lst:
        if item in counts.keys():
            counts[item] += 1
        else:
            counts[item] = 1
    theMode = max(counts.values())
    for key in counts:
        if key == theMode:
            theMode = key
    return theMode
    
def main():
    data = [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4]
    mode = find_mode(data)
    print("Mode:", mode)```

[tiny estuary]

those shouldn't cause issues, i agree calling a variable list isn't ideal but it should work as-is

@crystal kindle all the functionality is in the main() function, is it ever called?

[crystal kindle]

wdym (sorry i'm a beginner)

[tiny estuary]

ok so in the main() function, you call find_mode(data), which calls the find_mode() function with a list of data

find_mode() never runs until you call it, and you do inside main()

similarly, main() won't run until you call it

if what you posted here is your entire script, then it will never do anything

[crystal kindle]

ok yeah that's the problem then one sec

[tiny estuary]

do you know about if __name__ == '__main__'?

[crystal kindle]

no, but just typing main() fixed it

[tiny estuary]

you want to put this at the bottom of your script:

if __name__ == '__main__':
  main()

it doesn't make much difference for a single script, but it's good practice in situations like this

eventually you'll get to a point where you might write and import modules with the import statement, and this pattern prevents the script from being executed as soon as it's imported

[warm storm]

[1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4]```What should be the mode of this collection? 2, 3 or 2.5, or (2, 3)

[forest verge]

what hamtown says is what's making it not run as expected, but this still won't find the mode. There's lots of ways to do it, but the easiest to understand would be this (no idea if this formatting will work, sorry in advance):

max_v = 0
max_k = None
for k, v in counts.items():
    if v > max:
        max_v = v
        max_k = k
return max_k```

[forest verge]

Usually (2, 3), definitely not 2.5. If your data was [1, 1, 2, 3, 3], that method would say your mode is 2, which is definitely wrong.

[crystal kindle]

alright i figured it out thanks

[zinc crown]

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