When I call the function it says, name 'sales' is not defined. Can anyone explain why this is happening? [closed]

Question

I am just learning functions so please go easy on me! I do not have a problem calling the function with nothing as a parameter but when I put a parameter in and try to call it. It does not work?

This is what I am supposed to do:

Code a function called getFloatInput that receives a string as a parameter to be used as the prompt input text and it returns a float. You will be calling this function for each value to be inputted and assign the function’s return value and assign to each of the listed variables. For example: fSalesPrice = getFloatInput(“Enter property sales value:”)

def getFloatInput(sales):
    salesPrice = 0
    while True:
        try:
            salesPrice = float(input("Enter property sales value: "))
            if salesPrice <= 0:
                print("Enter a numeric value greater than 0")
                return salesPrice
        except ValueError:
            print("Input must be a numeric value")
        return salesPrice


getFloatInput(salesPrice)

Answer 1

sales is a local variable inside the scope of your function getFloatInput, thus you are trying to access a local variable outside of it's scope - which is the global scope in your case.

Assuming you have not defined it in the global scope, you are trying to use a variable which is not defined by calling getFloatInput(sales) and get an exception in consequence.

You should read up on those fundamental concepts:

https://www.w3schools.com/python/python_scope.asp https://www.w3schools.com/python/python_variables.asp