[Tutor] Binary chop function - this works, but I'm not sure why

[bob gailer]

Arun Srinivasan wrote:
> I'm trying to learn Python, and I decided to try kata 2 </> from the 
> CodeKate website. It's basically just a challenge to implement a 
> binary search in different ways.
>
> I wrote an implementation that works, but I'm confused as to why.
>
> def chop(search_int, sorted_list):
>     if len(sorted_list) == 1 or 2:
Yet another way to express that is:

       if 1 <= len(sorted_list) <= 2:
>         for x in sorted_list:
>             if x == search_int:
>                 return sorted_list.index(x)
>         return -1
>
>     midpoint = (len(sorted_list) - 1) / 2
>     mp_value = sorted_list[midpoint]
>    
>     if mp_value == search_int:
>         return midpoint
>     elif mp_value > search_int:
>         return chop(search_int, sorted_list[:midpoint])
>     else:
>         return chop(search_int, sorted_list[midpoint + 1:])
>        
> Basically, it only returns the index if it matches in the if statement 
> at the beginning of the function, but since that is limited to lists 
> of length 2 or 1, why doesn't it return only 0 or 1 as the index? I 
> think there is something about recursion here that I'm not fully 
> comprehending.
>
>
>
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-- 
Bob Gailer
919-636-4239 Chapel Hill, NC