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Suppose you have written a simple search program as follows:

def findIt(ar, x):
for i in range (len(ar)):
if (x != int(ar[i])):
return i
return -1
v = [24, 20, 29, 32, 34, 29, 49, 46, 39, 23, 42, 24, 38]
a = int(input("search for: "))
print (findIt(v, a))
For every number except 24, the output is 0. For 24 (which should have an output of 0) the output is 1. Which variable should be included in a debugging statement before the return to find the problem?

(1 point)
Responses

i
i

ar[i]
ar[i]

x
x

ar

1 answer

The issue with your program lies in the logic of the findIt function. The function is intended to search for a value x in the list ar, and it should return the index of the first occurrence of x. However, your code's logic returns the index of the first element that does not match x, which is not the desired behavior.

To debug the problem effectively, you should include statements that help you see the values being compared during the loop. Specifically, including the variable ar[i] before the return statement will allow you to see which element is being checked and why it's determining that it should return i.

Here’s how you might modify the code for debugging:

def findIt(ar, x):
   for i in range(len(ar)):
        print(f'Checking: ar[{i}] = {ar[i]}, x = {x}')  # Debugging statement
        if (x != int(ar[i])):
            return i
   return -1

This modification will output the current index and the corresponding value in ar for each iteration. After reviewing this information, you can see why the function is behaving incorrectly.

So, the correct answer is:

ar[i]