why doesn't python return booleans

Question

I have this small function that takes two integers a and b and checks if a is b raised to some exponent. This is the code.

Answer 1

You are ignoring the return value of the recursive call, add a return there:

else:
    a = a/b
    return is_power(a,b)

Without the return statement there, your function just ends and returns None instead. The return value of the recursive call is otherwise ignored.

With the return statement, your code works:

>>> def is_power(a,b):
...     if not a%b==0:
...         return a%b==0
...     elif a/b==1:
...        return a/b==1
...     else:
...         a = a/b
...         return is_power(a, b)
... 
>>> print is_power(10, 3)
False
>>> print is_power(8, 2)
True

Answer 2

You forgot to return on the last else clause.