NameError: name 'p' is not defined in

Question

This code executes, however, an error message \" NameError: name \'p\' is not defined in lines 7 and 11 - I tried adding float( ) around everything - same error - any ideas ???

Answer 1

You try to return p in a function where p is not declared. I think you want to do this:

def computepay(hrs,rate):
    if 0 < hrs <=40:
        p = (hrs * rate)
    elif hrs > 40:
        p = (40 * rate + (hrs-40)*rate*1.5)
    print p
    return p 

PS. The line hrs = float(input("Enter Hours:")) has a wrong indentation. Remove all white spaces before it.

Answer 2

Well, it is not defined in the function, is it?

There's no statement telling that:

p = ...

Perhaps you mean to assign p to "(40 * rate + (hrs-40)*rate*1.5)" if hrs > 40, and not only print it?

Answer 3

If you read your script from top to bottom:

def computepay(hrs,rate):

The interpreter uses this to define a local function with name computepay. It then ignores everything in the block:

if 0 < hrs <=40:
    print (hrs * rate)
elif hrs > 40:
    print (40 * rate + (hrs-40)*rate*1.5)
return p

Then it executes input, converts the result into a float object using float, and creates a name rate which points to the float object:

rate = float(input("Enter Rate per Hour:"))

Then it executes computepay which does its thing and tries to return p, however, the intepreter has not yet seen any definition of p in the local scope. Even if we said global p to tell the interpreter to look in the global scope, it has not yet created the NAME which points to any object. So you get a NameError:

p = computepay(hrs,rate)