I'm having a problem making my counter work in my recursion, instead of printing 11, it prints 11,1s. where am I making a mistake?

def power(x, n):
    global countcalls # note countcalls variable is in my global and it is equal to 0 
    countcalls =  1
    print(countcalls)
    if n <= 0:
        return 1
    else:
        return x * power(x, n-1)

my output:

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1024

output wanted :

11
1024

CodePudding user response：

First, countcalls = 1 doesn't increment the variable, it just sets it to 1. To increment, use = 1, not = 1.

Second, if you only want to print at the end, put the print() call in the base case.

Instead of using a global variable, use another parameter that defaults to 0.

def power(x, n, countcalls = 0):
    countcalls  = 1
    if n <= 0:
        print(countcalls)
        return 1
    else:
        return x * power(x, n-1, countcalls)