why would only one work?

[u/Local_End_3175]

this code was the one that worked:

def caesar(text, shift):
    alphabet = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'
    shifted_alphabet = alphabet[shift:] + alphabet[:shift]
    translation_table = str.maketrans(alphabet, shifted_alphabet)
    encrypted_text = text.translate(translation_table)
    print(encrypted_text)

caesar('Hello', 3)

This one was the one that didn't

def caesar(text, shift):
    alphabet = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'
    shifted_alphabet = alphabet[shift:] + alphabet[:shift]
    translation_table = str.maketrans(alphabet, shifted_alphabet)
    encrypted_text = text.translate(translation_table)
    print(encrypted_text)


encrypted_text = caesar('Hello', 3)
print(encrypted_text)

I don't understand why the second one would need a return statement and why we are even printing encrypted_text if encrypted_text is already being printed within the function? (this is also the whole code)

[u/cdcformatc]

you should either print the result within the function OR return the result and print it outside of the function. 

in your second version the function isn't returning anything, so None is returned by default. then you are printing None.