TypeError: binarySearch() got an unexpected keyword argument 'key'

Question

Code

a = int(input("What number do you want to search for in the list? "))

def bubbleSort(alist):                                         
    for passnum in range(len(alist)-1,0,-1):                                   
        for i in range(passnum):                                   
            if alist[i]>alist[i+1]:                                            
                temp = alist[i]                                                         
                alist[i] = alist[i+1]                                          
                alist[i+1] = temp                                                

def binarySearch(alist, item):
    first = 0
    last = len(alist)-1
    found = False

    while first<=last and not found:
        midpoint = (first + last)//2                                           
        if alist[midpoint] == item:                                              
            found = True                                                           
        else:                                 
            if item < alist[midpoint]:
                last = midpoint-1
            else:
                first = midpoint+1

    return found                

def getkey(item):                                                 
    return item[0]                                               
alist = [(75, "Jack"), (23, "Mark"), (31, "Dave"), (93, "Michael"), (52, "Clare"), (67, "Connie"), (37, "Bob"), (87, "Gary"), (59, "Billy"), (69,"Simon")]                             
bubbleSort(alist)                                  

print(binarySearch(alist, a, key=getkey))

---

This is the error I'm getting:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:/Python34/Lib/idlelib/Binary Search.py", line 35, in
print(binarySearch(alist, a, key=getkey))
TypeError: binarySearch() got an unexpected keyword argument 'key'

Any idea why?

Answer 1

You pass to binarySearch() three argument, but this function accept only two, so the argument 'key' is not recognized.

Call the function in this way:

print(binarySearch(alist, a))

Answer 2

Because you defined the function has two parameters and you pass three parameter to the function, so the error occur. You can define your function like

`def binarySearch(alist, item, key=getkey):
    #your code

then you can pass three or two parameters to the functions.