Python Syntaxerror:'Return' Outside Function

I would check my indentation, it looks off. Are you possibly mixing tabs and spaces? The PEP8 (Python Style Guide) recommends using 4 spaces only. Unlike other languages, whitepace makes a big difference in Python, so consistency is important.

The above also makes the following recommendation:

When invoking the Python command line interpreter with the -t option, it issues warnings about code that illegally mixes tabs and spaces. When using -tt these warnings become errors. These options are highly recommended!

In particular, your 2nd else seems to be off (probably should be indented), and this method def __div__(self, other): too (which I would think ought to be at the same level as your other defs - i.e., moved "out" rather than indented).

Problems mixing tabs/blanks are easy to have since both characters are "invisible".

Make sure your __div__ is declared at the same level as your __str__ (right now, it's declared inside the __str_).

By my copy and paste, everything from this line:

else:
if self.imagPart >=0:
        return '%f+%fi'%(self.realPart, self.imagPart)
elif self.imagPart <0: # Everything under here..

To this line:

    resultI = float(float(r2*i1-r1*i2)/float(r2*r2+i2*i2))
result = Complex(resultR, resultI)
return result # Needs to be unindented.

has wrong indenting.

Well i am new to python world. What i learned is return statement should be some thing like this.

Example one :-

def split_train_test(data, test_ratio):
    shuffled_indices = np.random.permutation(len(data))
    test_set_size = int(len(data) * test_ratio)
    test_indices = shuffled_indices[:test_set_size]
    train_indices = shuffled_indices[test_set_size:]
    return data.iloc[train_indices],data.iloc[test_indices]

Example two :-

def load_housing_data(housing_path=HOUSING_PATH):
    csv_path = os.path.join(housing_path, "housing.csv")
    return pd.read_csv(csv_path)

I answered here:-

def functiont(x,y z,k):
    """some function
    """
    if xxxx:
        return True
    else
        return False

As per the code above you can see the return statement is indented inside the function def and hence there will be no error in this case. However, you will get an python error - SyntaxError :'return' outside function if the return is indented as below.

def functiont(x,y z,k):
    """some function
    """
if xxxx:
    return True
else
    return False

Use a good editor

Install one of the below editors that can format your files properly

• PyCharm Community edition,
• Visual Studio code,

Format document

For example: In Visual Studio code, Open the file > Right click > Format document

Finding & Fixing the issue

Once the code is formatted by editor, you will see something like below

Bad code

def func1():
    print ("I am in func1")
    return ""               # <----------- this is ok, its inside function func1

def func2():
    print ("I am in func2")
return ""                   # <-----CASE 1------ SyntaxError: 'return' outside function 'func2'

print ("I am outside of all functions")
return ""                   # <-----CASE 2------ SyntaxError: 'return' outside of all functions

NOTE - In both CASE 1 & CASE 2, ERROR occurred because 'return' is not inside any function, it's outside of all functions.

Good code

def func1():
    print ("I am in func1")
    return ""           # <----------- this is ok, its inside function func1

def func2():
    print ("I am in func2")
    return ""           # <-----CASE 1-- Fixed, added SPACE or TAB, now 'return' is inside function

print ("I am outside of all functions")
                        # <-----CASE 2-- Fixed, 'return' is removed, no return is required here

This is very common issue you might face when you write code in python after a gap.

Hope that helps.