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So the question reads: Design a function that accepts an integer argument and return’s the sum of all integers from 1 up to the number passed as an argument. For example, if 50 is passed as an argument, the function will return the sum of 1,2,3,4…….50. Use recursion to calculate the sum. im having lots of trouble as you can tell by my code

def main():
    numbers= int(input('Enter a number to add the sums: ')
    mysum = sum_num(numbers,1)


def sum_num(numbers,mysum):
    start=1
    end=numbers
    if start>end:
        return 0
    else:
        return my_sum
main()
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1  
What exactly is the problem? "im having lots of trouble..." is too vague for SO. –  iCodez 11 mins ago
 
i cant get the code to work. also i dont know if im doing it right. –  nixvaldez 9 mins ago
 
For a thing to be recursive, it has to... y'know. Call itself recursively. Might want to start there. –  roippi 8 mins ago
 
Well you don't even have recursion in your code...Maybe you can start by learning what a recursive function call is. Google examples for recursive fibonacci and recursive factorial functions. Those are the most basic, I think. You can also make a simple recursive exponentiation function for positive integer exponents. –  Shashank Gupta 8 mins ago

2 Answers

up vote 0 down vote 
def sumup(n):
    # this one is your emergency break. you return 1 if n gets below
    # a certain threshold, otherwise you'll end up with an infinite
    # loop
    if n <= 1:
        return n
    # here is the recursion step, we return (n + "the sum to n+1")
    else:
        return n + sumup(n-1)

print(sumup(50))
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up vote -1 down vote 
def f(s):
    if s == 0:
        return 0
    else:
        return f(s-1) + s

print f(int(input()))
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