i want to be able to make factorial while counting down

[jsmith27]

x = 5
y = 5

while x > 0:
    print (x, x * y)
    x -= 1

how can i make this do factorial of 5?

[bvdet]

There are several way to calculate a factorial of a number. This uses the built-in function reduce:

>>> import operator
>>> reduce(operator.mul, range(5, 0, -1))
120

This uses recursion:

>>> def factorial(n):
... 	if n == 0:
... 		return 1
... 	return n*factorial(n-1)
... 
>>> factorial(5)
120
>>>

A simple for loop:

>>> x = 5
>>> v = 1
>>> for i in range(5, 0, -1):
... 	v *= i
... 	
>>> v
120
>>>

Choose what is best for your application.