Unit 5

§ functions
§ decomposition – create structure
§ abstraction – suppress details
§ Projects and assignment will based
on functions and object oriented

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6.0001 LECTURE5 2
 TODAY
§ We know scalar variable types: int, float,
bool,string
§ introduce some compound data types
§ Tuples
§ lists
§ Also will cover the concept of
§ Aliasing
§ Mutability
§ cloning 3
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§ an ordered sequence of elements, can mix element types
§ cannot change element values, immutable
§ represented with parentheses
t = ()
t = (2,"MENG",3)
t[0] à evaluates to 2
(2,"MENG",3)+ (5,6) à evaluates to (2,"MENG",3,5,6)
t[1:2] à slice tuple, evaluates to ("MENG",)
t[1:3] à slice tuple, evaluates to ("MENG",3)
len(t) à evaluates to 3
t[1] = 4 à gives error, can’t modify object 4
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§ conveniently used to swap variable values
x = y temp = x (x, y) = (y, x)
y = x x = y
y = temp
§ used to return more than one value from a function
def quotient_and_remainder(x, y):
q = x // y #integer division operator

r = x % y
return (q, r)
(quot, rem) = quotient_and_remainder(4,5)
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6.0001 LECTURE5 5
 aTuple:(( ),( ),( ))
§ can iterate over tuples

def get_data(aTuple):
nums( )
nums = () words( ? ? ?)
words = ()
if not already in words
for t in aTuple:
i.e. unique strings from aTuple
nums = nums + (t[0],)
if t[1] not in words:
words = words + (t[1],)
min_n = min(nums)
max_n = max(nums)
unique_words = len(words)
return (min_n, max_n, unique_words)
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§ ordered sequence of information, accessible by index
§ a list is denoted by square brackets, []
§ a list contains elements
• usually homogeneous (ie, all integers)
• can contain mixed types (not common)
§ list elements can be changed so a list is mutable

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6.0001 LECTURE5 7
a_list = []
L = [2, 'a', 4, [1,2]]
len(L) à evaluates to 4
L[0] à evaluates to 2
L[2]+1 à evaluates to 5
L[3] à evaluates to [1,2], another list!
L[4] à gives an error
i = 2
L[i-1] à evaluates to ‘a’ since L[1]='a' above
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 MUTABLE
§ assigning to an element at an index changes the value

L = [2, 1, 3]
L[1] = 5
§ L is now [2, 5, 3], note this is the same object L

L
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§ compute the sum of elements of a list
§ common pattern, iterate over list elements
total = 0 total = 0
for i in range(len(L)): for i in L:
total += L[i]
total += i
print total print total
§ notice
• list elements are indexed 0 to len(L)-1
• range(n) goes from 0 to n-1
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§ to combine lists together use concatenation, + operator,
to give you a new list

L1 = [2,1,3]
L2 = [4,5,6]
L3 = L1 + L2 à L3 is [2,1,3,4,5,6]
L1, L2 unchanged

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§ L.append(element)
§ add elements to end of list with mutates the list!
L1 = [2,1,3]
L1.append(5 à Lis now [2,1,3,5]
)

§ L.extend(some_list)
§ extend list by add other list to the end (similar to ‘+ ‘)
L1.extend([0,6])à mutated L1 to [2,1,3,0,6]

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§del(L[index])
§delete element at a specific index with
§L.pop()
§remove element at end of list with, returns the
removed element
§ L.remove(element)
§ remove a specific element with looks for the element
and removes it
• if element occurs multiple times, removes first occurrence
• if element not in list, gives an error

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§ L = [2,1,3,6,3,7,0]
§ # do below in order

§ L.remove(2) à mutates L = [1,3,6,3,7,0]

§ del(L[1]) à mutates L = [1,3,7,0]

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§list(s)
§convert string to list with, returns a list with every character
from s an element in L
§s.split(),
§can use to split a string on a character parameter, splits on
spaces if called without a parameter
§''.join(L)
§to turn a list of charactersinto a string, can give a character
in quotes to add char between every element

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s = "I<3 MENG" à s is a string
list(s) à returns ['I','<','3',' ','M', ‘E', ‘N’, ‘G']
s.split('<') à returns ['I','3 MENG']

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L = ['a','b','c'] à L is a list
''.join(L) à returns "abc"
'_'.join(L) à returns "a_b_c"

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§ sort() and sorted()
§reverse()
§and many more
https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/datastructures.html

L=[9,6,0,3]
sorted(L) à returns sorted list, does not mutate L
L.sort() à mutates L=[0,3,6,9]
L.reverse() à mutates L=[9,6,3,0]
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§ lists are mutable
§ behave differently than immutable types
§ is an object in memory
§ variable name points to object
§ any variable pointing to that object is affected
§ key phrase to keep in mind when working with lists is
side effects

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§ hot is an aliasfor warm – changing one changes the
other.
§ append() has a side effect

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§ create a new list and copy every element using
chill = cool[:]

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§ calling sort() mutates the list, returns nothing
§calling sorted()
does not mutate
list, must assign
result to a variable

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§can have nested lists
§side effects still
possible after mutation

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l1=[1,2,3] l1=[1,2,3]
l2=[l1,l1] l2=[l1[:],l1[:]]
l1.append(4) l1.append(4)
print (l2) print (l2)

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§ avoid mutating a list as you are iterating over it
def remove_dups(L1, L2): def remove_dups(L1, L2):
for e in L1: L1_copy = L1[:]
if e in L2: for e in L1_copy:
L1.remove(e) if e in L2:
L1.remove(e)
L1 = [1, 2, 3, 4]
L2 = [1, 2, 5, 6]
remove_dups(L1, L2)
§ L1 is [2,3,4] not [3,4] Why?
• Python uses an internal counter to keep track of index it is in the loop
• mutating changes the list length but Python doesn’t update the counter
• loop never sees element 2
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X=(1,[2,3]) X=[1,(2,3)]
X[1][0]=10 X[1][0]=10
print (X) print (X)

X=(1,[2,3]) X=[1,(2,3)]
X[1]=10 X[1]=10
print (X) print (X)

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