[Tutor] Newbie python programmer here.

[Alan Gauld]

> That is what I want it to do anyhow. I can't seem to get it right.
What
> am I doing wrong?
>
> def reverse(name):

This defines a function called reverse which takes a parameter 'name'.
Thus to use it you call:

reverse('Jarrod')

>     name = "aname"

This overwrites the name with 'aname' which I assume you just
put there to make testing easier?

>     for i in name:
>            print i[-1]

This takes each letter in 'aname' and prints it.

Try this approach.
Start at the end of the string and work back to zero:

def reverse(name):
   index = len(name)
   while index > 0:
      print name[index],  # comma stops newline
      index = index - 1

That will print the letters with spaces in between but
in the order we want.

To avoid the spaces we can use a temporary string:

def reverse(name):
   index = len(name) - 1   # subtract 1 to account for zero start
   result = ""             # start with it empty
   while index >= 0:
      result = result + name[index]  # add the current letter
      index = index - 1
   print result

To make the function more reusable you might also want to return the
result rather than printing it, like so:

def reverse(name):
   index = len(name) - 1   # subtract 1 to account for zero start
   result = ""             # start with it empty
   while index >= 0:
      result = result + name[index]  # add the current letter
      index = index - 1
   return result

Now we can use it like this:

>>> print reverse('fooey')
yeoof
>>> temp = reverse('Terrence')
>>> print temp
ecnerreT

Its usually a good idea to separate printing from calculations
or operations on data.

HTH,

Alan G
Author of the Learn to Program web tutor
http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld