Need some help on the following python script

Question

this is the following question and the script - The counter function counts down from start to stop when start is bigger than stop, and counts up from start to stop otherwise. Fill in the blanks to make this work correctly.

Python Script -

def counter(start, stop):
    x = start
    if ___:
        return_string = "Counting down: "
        while x >= stop:
            return_string += str(x)
            if ___:
                return_string += ","
            ___
    else:
        return_string = "Counting up: "
        while x <= stop:
            return_string += str(x)
            if ___:
                return_string += ","
            ___
    return return_string

    print(counter(1, 10)) # Should be "Counting up: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10"
    print(counter(2, 1)) # Should be "Counting down: 2,1"
    print(counter(5, 5)) # Should be "Counting up: 5"

Answer 1

Looks like homework but anyways,

def counter(start, stop): 
x = start 
if x>stop:
    return_string = "Counting down: " 
    while x >= stop:
        return_string += str(x) 
        if x>stop: 
            return_string += "," 
        x = x - 1
else: 
    return_string = "Counting up: " 
    while x <= stop: 
        return_string += str(x) 
        if x<stop: 
            return_string += "," 
        x = x + 1
return return_string

Answer 2

def counter(start, stop):
x = start
if start > stop:
    return_string = "Counting down: "
    while x >= stop:
        return_string += str(x)
        x -= 1
        if start != stop:
            return_string += ","
else:
    return_string = "Counting up: "
    while x <= stop:
        return_string += str(x)
        x += 1
        if start != stop:
            return_string += ","
return return_string.strip(",")