Review
Lists
- Use lists to store data where order matters.
- Lists are indexed starting with 0.
List initialization
>>> my_list = [] >>> my_list [] >>> your_list = ["a", "b", "c", 1, 2, 3] >>> your_list ['a', 'b', 'c', 1, 2, 3]
Access and adding elements to a list
>>> len(my_list)
0
>>> my_list[0]
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
IndexError: list index out of range
>>> my_list.append("Alice")
>>> my_list
['Alice']
>>> len(my_list)
1
>>> my_list[0]
'Alice'
>>> my_list.insert(0, "Amy")
>>> my_list
['Amy', 'Alice']
>>> my_list = ['Amy', 'Alice'] >>> 'Amy' in my_list True >>> 'Bob' in my_list False
Changing elements in a list
>>> your_list = []
>>> your_list.append("apples")
>>> your_list[0]
'apples'
>>> your_list[0] = "bananas"
>>> your_list
['bananas']
Slicing lists
>>> her_list = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h'] >>> her_list[0] 'a' >>> her_list[0:3] ['a', 'b', 'c'] >>> her_list[:3] ['a', 'b', 'c'] >>> her_list[-1] 'h' >>> her_list[5:] ['f', 'g', 'h'] >>> her_list[:] ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h']
sorting lists
Use .sort() to sort a list:
>>> names = ["Eliza", "Joe", "Henry", "Harriet", "Wanda", "Pat"] >>> names.sort() >>> names ['Eliza', 'Harriet', 'Henry', 'Joe', 'Pat', 'Wanda']
Getting the maximum and minimum values from a list
>>> numbers = [0, 3, 10, -1] >>> max(numbers) 10 >>> min(numbers) -1
Strings are a lot like lists
>>> my_string = "Hello World" >>> my_string[0] 'H' >>> my_string[:5] 'Hello' >>> my_string[6:] 'World' >>> my_string = my_string[:6] + "Jessica" >>> my_string 'Hello Jessica'
- One big way in which strings are different from lists is that lists are mutable (you can change them), and strings are immutable (you can't change them). To "change" a string you have to make a copy:
>>> h = "Hello" >>> h[0] = "J" Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> TypeError: 'str' object does not support item assignment >>> h = "J" + h[1:] >>> h 'Jello'
New concepts
Generating a list of numbers easily with range()
>>> range(5) [0, 1, 2, 3, 4] >>> for i in range(5): ... print "Hi" * i ... Hi HiHi HiHiHi HiHiHiHi
The range() function returns a list of numbers. This is handy for when you want to generate a list of numbers on the fly instead of creating the list yourself.
>>> range(5) [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]
Use range when you want to loop over a bunch of numbers in a list:
>>> numbers = range(5) >>> for number in numbers: ... print(number * number) ... 0 1 4 9 16
We could rewrite the above example like this:
>>> for number in range(5): ... print(number * number) ... 0 1 4 9 16
Get user input with input()
>>> for i in range(100):
... my_input = input("Please type something> ")
... if input == "Quit":
... print("Goodbye!")
... break
... else:
... print("You said: " + my_input)
...
Please type something> Hello
You said: Hello
Please type something> How are you?
You said: How are you?
Please type something> Quit
Goodbye!
>>>
Dictionaries
- Use dictionaries to store key/value pairs.
- Dictionaries do not guarantee ordering.
- A given key can only have one value, but multiple keys can have the same value.
Initialization
>>> my_dict = {}
>>> my_dict
{}
>>> your_dict = {"Alice" : "chocolate", "Bob" : "strawberry", "Cara" : "mint chip"}
>>> your_dict
{'Bob': 'strawberry', 'Cara': 'mint chip', 'Alice': 'chocolate'}
Adding elements to a dictionary
>>> your_dict["Dora"] = "vanilla"
>>> your_dict
{'Bob': 'strawberry', 'Cara': 'mint chip', 'Dora': 'vanilla', 'Alice': 'chocolate'}
Accessing elements of a dictionary
>>> your_dict["Alice"]
'chocolate'
>>> your_dict.get("Alice")
'chocolate'
>>> your_dict["Eve"]
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
KeyError: 'Eve'
>>> "Eve" in your_dict
False
>>> "Alice" in your_dict
True
>>> your_dict.get("Eve")
>>> person = your_dict.get("Eve")
>>> print(person)
None
>>> print(type(person))
<type 'NoneType'>
>>> your_dict.get("Alice")
'chocolate'
Changing elements of a dictionary
>>> your_dict["Alice"] = "coconut"
>>> your_dict
{'Bob': 'strawberry', 'Cara': 'mint chip', 'Dora': 'vanilla', 'Alice': 'coconut'}
Types
>>> type(my_dict) <type 'dict'>
Exercise
Click here to download the scripts for this week's in-class exercise
