Return a list in python

Question

This is for a school project. It is a program that returns the shortest path from a start word to another end word using BFS. I have to crosscheck the start word with a list of words I have and save that word in a list called children. I would like to print the list Children when I ran the program. Why don't I see the list Children when I ran the program?

import bintree
import imp
imp.reload(bintree)
from queuelist import Queue 

class Word:
    def __init__(self, w, f = None):
        self.word = w
        self.parent = f


filename = 'word3u'
fin=open(filename,'r')

tree = bintree.Bintree()

alist = fin.readlines()

lista='abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'

doubles=bintree.Bintree()                      

for ord in alist:                               
    word=ord.strip()
    tree.put(word)

def generator(parent):
    children=[]
    theWord=parent.word
    doubles.put(theWord)
    #print(theWord)
    n=0
    while n<3:
        for i in lista:                                       
            if n==0:
                theWord=i+theWord[1:]
                #print("1 "+theWord)
            if n==1:
                theWord=theWord[0]+i+theWord[2]
                #print("2 "+theWord)
            if n==2:
                theWord=theWord[0:2]+i
                #print("3 "+theWord)
            if tree.exists(theWord):
                #print("THIS " + theWord)
                if not doubles.exists(theWord):
                    #print("THIS 2 " + theWord)
                    children.append(Word(theWord, parent))       
                    doubles.put(theWord)

        theWord=parent.word #reset theWord for next n
        n+=1
    return children

generator(Word("fan"))

Answer 1

Since you returned the childeren in your function you need to print your object when you call it.So just do the following :

print(generator(Word("fan")))