recursive linear search python
"""
This is rather straight forward:
The function just needs to look at a supplied element, and, if that element isn't the one we're looking for, call itself for the next element.
"""
def recrsv_lin_search (target, lst, index=0):
if index >= len(lst):
return False
if lst[index] == target:
return index
else:
return recrsv_lin_search(target, lst, index+1)
#test it
example = [1,6,1,8,52,74,12,85,14]
#check if 1 is in the list (should return 0, the index of the first occurrence
print (recrsv_lin_search(1,example))
#check if 8 is in the list (should return 3, the index of the first and only occurrence)
print (recrsv_lin_search(8,example))
#check if 14 is in the list (should return 8, the index of the last occurrence)
print (recrsv_lin_search(14,example))
#check if 53 is in the list (should return False)
print (recrsv_lin_search(53,example))