how do you add a code block like that?

maybe he forgot to add the list() function?

Hector, I've already posted a working solution. The list() is not needed nor a conversion to a string. Take a minute and read/try my solution. The problem is he has an extra open parentheses. That's all.

As for posting code blocks: There's a markdown cheatsheet link at the bottom of this page that will show you how to do it.

ever since i started learning how to program and i picked python out of all, i havent been able to go through a challenge on my own i have to go through community. does that mean i am not learning it right or maybe i dont fully understand the concept? the thing is that i feel that i understand but sometime things are written in a way i find really hard to understand. i dont know what to do.

for example why do you have return fruits and then brackets around the variable why not just the variable. things like that confuses me.

even when i took that could it didnt work. lol hahahaha shall i just quit?

check it out not working:

EXAMPLE

random_item("Treehouse")

The randomly selected number is 4.

The return value would be "h"

import random

def random_item(fruits): indexvalue= random.randint(0, len(fruits)-1) return fruits.indexvalue

Abdallah El Kabbany Well absolutely don't quit! As far as I know, that's never been the answer to anything

Well, let's take a closer look at this. Let's imagine that this code isn't taking a string. Let's say it's taking a whole list of strings that contain a bunch of fruits that we need for our fruit salad.

import random
def random_item(fruits):
  indexValue = random.randint(0, len(fruits)-1)
  return fruits[indexValue]    

Let's imagine that we are are going to call this random item list and have it pick a random fruit from our list (for some odd reason). So the fruits we're sending in are: Apple, Banana, Pineapple, Kiwi, Mango, Papaya, Grape, Orange, and Pear. We want it to pick one of those. Now we're going to send these in in an array which will look like this ["Apple", "Banana", "Pineapple", "Kiwi", "Mango", "Papaya", "Grape", "Orange", "Pear"]. So we have 9 fruits. That's the length of our fruits list. But humans... we start counting from 1. Computers generally start counting from 0.

So let's take 9 boxes and start setting them up. But we're going to label them starting with 0. The boxes are labeled like this and contain the following fruit:

Box 0 = Apple Box 1 = Banana Box 2 = Pineapple Box 3 = Kiwi

Box 4 = Mango Box 5 = Papaya Box 6 = Grape Box 7 = Orange Box 8 = Pear

So we still have our 9 fruits, but because they start at a box named 0 the last box is box 8.

Now we're going to get a random number. And our random number is 3! So we are going to get out the fruit in box 3 and return it to the ... chef, I suppose And we do this by writing:

return fruits[3]

This will return a kiwi (or the item in box 3 to whoever requested it. This is just how we write it in python (and actually a few other languages as well).

I hope this helps somewhat! Let me know if it was clear as mud

P.S. The reason your code is failing is because you're missing the square brackets. The dot notation you're trying to use is something we use on objects later on down the line, and we're not really there yet

I don't agree. The code I listed works and the challenge says this: "from an iterable (like a list or a string)."

We have no way to know whether Treehouse is sending in a list or a string or an array.

Yes, in the example in the comment it is a string. But look again at the challenge instructions. It explicitly states an iterable. Not necessarily a string.