My Python items aren't adding to the list, len isn't changing after recalling

Alright, I'm making a game of sorts... I've done it with append as well -_-

When I call back and add the next item(i.e. #2 after doing #1) I get just that item in the print out...

such as this:

>  1
You put your Hatchet into the bag
Press enter to add more items
['Hatchet']
>  
>  2
You put your Toothbrush into the bag
Press enter to add more items
['Toothbrush']

I'd like for the bag to get more items in it and once the bag reaches three items it takes me to the next 'level'. I can't seem to add the items to the bag and keep them in the bag and then monitor the growing len(bag). If I call back the len(bag) it's always stuck back on 1. Is this because of the 'return' function I'm using? or is it something else? I figure I can try coding so that it goes into a new list with new bag after entering one item(seems like a ton of excessive code, but would work). I'm also pretty confident there is tons of excessive code in this script, I'm extremely new to Python and am doing an assignment/exercise from a book. I appreciate the help in advance!!

def beginning():
    print 'Hello'

def func():
    firstitem=raw_input(">  ")
    bag=[]
    limit=len(bag)
    a="Hatchet"
    b="Toothbrush"
    c="Map"

    if firstitem=="1":
        bag.insert(1, 'Hatchet')
        print 'You put your %s into the bag' % a
        print 'Press enter to add more items'
        print bag
        limit=len(bag)
        if limit == 开发者_StackOverflow中文版int(3):
            beginning()
        item=raw_input(">  ")
        return func()
    if firstitem=="2":
        bag.insert(2, 'Toothbrush')
        print 'You put your %s into the bag' % b
        print 'Press enter to add more items'
        print bag
        limit=len(bag)
        if limit == int(3):
            beginning()
        item=raw_input(">  ")
        return func()
    if firstitem=="3":
        bag.insert(3, 'Map')
        print 'You put your %s into the bag' % c
        print 'Press enter to add more items'
        print bag
        limit=len(bag)

    if limit == int(3):
            beginning()
        item=raw_input(">  ")
        return func()

OK so if I make the new func. is that under the existing one? or complete new?

---

Your problem is that you're adding something to bag, but then you're recursing into the start of func again, where it has a different scope. It then assigns [] to bag, leaving it empty. Something you could do is make func take an optional argument:

def func(bag=None):
    if bag is None:
        bag = []
    # ...
    return func(bag)

Additionally, append probably really is the right thing to do here.

---

bag is a list not a dict. If you want to add items to a list, you should use append.

---

The reason why you always have the only one item in bag list is because you recreate it each time you call your function so you need to find a way how to correctly initialize it. Also it is better to use append instead of insert in your case. Please find below my sample code(not sure that this is a good idea to write code this way - so don't beat me too much for it):

def beginning():
    print 'Hello'
    return []

def func(bag):
    item = raw_input("Enter your choice here >  ")
    limit = len(bag)
    things = {'1':"Hatchet", '2':"Toothbrush", '3':"Map", '77':'Leave', '100':'backward'}
    if things.get(item).lower() == 'leave':
        print 'Bye'
        return
    elif things.get(item).lower() == 'backward':
        while len(bag)!=0:
            print bag, bag.pop()
        return
    bag.append(things.get(item))
    print 'You put your %s into the bag' % things.get(item)
    print 'Press enter to add more items'
    print bag
    if len(bag) == 3:
        bag = beginning()
    return func(bag)

func(beginning())