Handling HTTP status messages and multiple returns

Question

I am new to Python and have written a function which calls an API and does some processing. Please review the code and explain what is the right and pythonic way.

def fetch_storedetails(api_link, zone_id, latitude, longitude):
    """

    :param api_link:
    :param zone_id:
    :param latitude:
    :param longitude:
    :return:
    """
    import requests
    store_details = requests.get(
        api_link + '/' + str(zone_id) + '/' + str(0) + '/' + str(latitude) + '/' + str(longitude),
        headers={'language': 'en'})
    print(store_details, store_details)
    print(store_details.json)
    s_details = store_details.json()
    if store_details.status_code == 400:
        return "'Sorry , we do not deliver to your selected address at this moment as it’s out of delivery reach."
    elif store_details.status_code == 404:
        return "Stores are not available in your location"
    elif store_details.status_code == 500:
        return "Internal server error"
    else:

        print(s_details)
        store_name = []
        store_address = []
        banner_image = []
        store_rating = []
        store_id = []

        for i in s_details['data']:
            store_name.append(i['businessName'])
            store_address.append(i['storeAddr'])
            banner_image.append(i['bannerLogos']['bannerimage'])
            store_rating.append(i['businessRating'])
            store_id.append(i['businessId'])

    return store_name, store_address, banner_image, store_rating, store_id

Answer 1

• If you're going to drop in a comment block for function documentation, fill it out. Otherwise, delete it.
• Generally you shouldn't import on the inside of a function. import at the top of a file.
• Your constructed URL shouldn't use a series of +. You should be using the % formatting operator or str.format(). This will also avoid calling str(0).
• None of your elses are necessary. You return before each of them, so you can simply continue writing the rest of the function afterward.
• If I were you, I would simply return s_details['data']. Decomposing the payload into a series of lists isn't really useful, and if it is indeed useful for your application, it should be done in a separate function.
• Returning an error string to indicate an error is a bad idea. You should raise an exception instead.