21:10, 24/02/2022 PY0101EN-2-2-Lists

Lists in Python
Estimated time needed: 15 minutes

Objectives
After completing this lab you will be able to:

Perform list operations in Python, including indexing, list manipulation, and copy/clone list.

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Table of Contents

About the Dataset (https://#dataset)

Lists (https://#list)
Indexing (https://index/?
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utm_medium=Exinfluencer&utm_source=Exinfluencer&utm_content=000026UJ&utm_term=10006555&
SkillsNetwork-Channel-
SkillsNetworkCoursesIBMDeveloperSkillsNetworkPY0101ENSkillsNetwork19487395-2021-01-
01=000026UJ&utm_term=10006555&utm_id=NA-SkillsNetwork-Channel-
SkillsNetworkCoursesIBMDeveloperSkillsNetworkPY0101ENSkillsNetwork19487395-2021-01-01)
List Content (content)
List Operations (op)
Copy and Clone List (co)
Quiz on Lists (https://#quiz)

About the Dataset

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Imagine you received album recommendations from your friends and compiled all of the recommandations into a
table, with specific information about each album.

The table has one row for each movie and several columns:

artist - Name of the artist

album - Name of the album
released_year - Year the album was released
length_min_sec - Length of the album (hours,minutes,seconds)
genre - Genre of the album
music_recording_sales_millions - Music recording sales (millions in USD) on SONG://DATABASE
(http://www.song-database.com/?
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SkillsNetwork-Channel-
SkillsNetworkCoursesIBMDeveloperSkillsNetworkPY0101ENSkillsNetwork19487395-2021-01-01)
claimed_sales_millions - Album's claimed sales (millions in USD) on SONG://DATABASE
(http://www.song-database.com/?
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date_released - Date on which the album was released
soundtrack - Indicates if the album is the movie soundtrack (Y) or (N)
rating_of_friends - Indicates the rating from your friends from 1 to 10

The dataset can be seen below:

<table font-size:xx-small>
Artist
Album Released
Length
Genre Music recording sales (millions)
Claimed sales (millions)
Released
Soundtrack
Rating (friends)

Michael Jackson
Thriller 1982
00:42:19
Pop, rock, R&B
46
65
30-Nov-82
10.0
AC/DC
Back in Black 1980
00:42:11
Hard rock
26.1
50
25-Jul-80
8.5
Pink

Floyd
The Dark Side of the Moon 1973
00:42:49
Progressive rock
24.2
45
01-Mar-73
9.5
Whitney Houston
The Bodyguard 1992
00:57:44
Soundtrack/R&B,
soul, pop
26.1
50
25-Jul-80
Y
7.0
Meat Loaf
Bat Out of Hell 1977
00:46:33
Hard rock, progressive rock
20.6
43
21-Oct-77
7.0
Eagles
Their Greatest Hits

(1971-1975) 1976
00:43:08
Rock, soft rock, folk rock
32.2
42
17-Feb-76
9.5
Bee Gees
Saturday Night Fever 1977
1:15:54
Disco
20.6
40
15-Nov-77
Y
9.0

Fleetwood Mac
Rumours 1977
00:40:01
Soft rock
27.9
40
04-Feb-77
9.5
</table></font>

Lists

Indexing

We are going to take a look at lists in Python. A list is a sequenced collection of different objects such as integers, strings, and even other lists as well. The
address of each element within a list is called an index. An index is used to access and refer to items within a list.

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To create a list, type the list within square brackets \[ ], with your content inside the parenthesis and separated by commas. Let’s try it!

In [ ]:

# Create a list

L = ["Michael Jackson", 10.1, 1982]

We can use negative and regular indexing with a list:

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In [ ]:

# Print the elements on each index

print('the same element using negative and positive indexing:\n Postive:',L[0],

'\n Negative:' , L[-3] )

print('the same element using negative and positive indexing:\n Postive:',L[1],

'\n Negative:' , L[-2] )

print('the same element using negative and positive indexing:\n Postive:',L[2],

'\n Negative:' , L[-1] )

List Content

Lists can contain strings, floats, and integers. We can nest other lists, and we can also nest tuples and other data structures. The same indexing conventions
apply for nesting:

In [ ]:

# Sample List

["Michael Jackson", 10.1, 1982, [1, 2], ("A", 1)]

List Operations

We can also perform slicing in lists. For example, if we want the last two elements, we use the following command:

In [ ]:

# Sample List

L = ["Michael Jackson", 10.1,1982,"MJ",1]

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In [ ]:

# List slicing

L[3:5]

We can use the method extend to add new elements to the list:

In [ ]:

# Use extend to add elements to list

L = [ "Michael Jackson", 10.2]

L.extend(['pop', 10])

Another similar method is append . If we apply append instead of extend , we add one element to the list:

In [ ]:

# Use append to add elements to list

L = [ "Michael Jackson", 10.2]

L.append(['pop', 10])

Each time we apply a method, the list changes. If we apply extend we add two new elements to the list. The list L is then modified by adding two new

elements:

In [ ]:

# Use extend to add elements to list

L = [ "Michael Jackson", 10.2]

L.extend(['pop', 10])

If we append the list \['a','b'] we have one new element consisting of a nested list:

In [ ]:

# Use append to add elements to list

L.append(['a','b'])

As lists are mutable, we can change them. For example, we can change the first element as follows:

In [ ]:

# Change the element based on the index

A = ["disco", 10, 1.2]

print('Before change:', A)

A[0] = 'hard rock'

print('After change:', A)

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We can also delete an element of a list using the del command:

In [ ]:

# Delete the element based on the index

print('Before change:', A)

del(A[0])

print('After change:', A)

We can convert a string to a list using split . For example, the method split translates every group of characters separated by a space into an element in

a list:

In [ ]:

# Split the string, default is by space

'hard rock'.split()

We can use the split function to separate strings on a specific character which we call a delimiter. We pass the character we would like to split on into the

argument, which in this case is a comma. The result is a list, and each element corresponds to a set of characters that have been separated by a comma:

In [ ]:

# Split the string by comma

'A,B,C,D'.split(',')

Copy and Clone List

When we set one variable B equal to A, both A and B are referencing the same list in memory:

In [ ]:

# Copy (copy by reference) the list A

A = ["hard rock", 10, 1.2]

B = A

print('A:', A)

print('B:', B)

Initially, the value of the first element in B is set as "hard rock". If we change the first element in A to "banana", we get an unexpected side effect. As A and B

are referencing the same list, if we change list A, then list B also changes. If we check the first element of B we get "banana" instead of "hard rock":

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In [ ]:

# Examine the copy by reference

print('B[0]:', B[0])

A[0] = "banana"

print('B[0]:', B[0])

This is demonstrated in the following figure:

You can clone list A by using the following syntax:

In [ ]:

# Clone (clone by value) the list A

B = A[:]

Variable B references a new copy or clone of the original list. This is demonstrated in the following figure:

Now if you change A, B will not change:

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In [ ]:

print('B[0]:', B[0])

A[0] = "hard rock"

print('B[0]:', B[0])

Quiz on List

Create a list a_list , with the following elements 1 , hello , \[1,2,3] and True .

In [ ]:

# Write your code below and press Shift+Enter to execute

Click here for the solution

Find the value stored at index 1 of a_list .

In [ ]:

# Write your code below and press Shift+Enter to execute

Click here for the solution

Retrieve the elements stored at index 1, 2 and 3 of a_list .

In [ ]:

# Write your code below and press Shift+Enter to execute

Click here for the solution

Concatenate the following lists A = \[1, 'a'] and B = \[2, 1, 'd'] :

In [ ]:

# Write your code below and press Shift+Enter to execute

Click here for the solution

The last exercise!

Congratulations, you have completed your first lesson and hands-on lab in Python.

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Author
Joseph Santarcangelo (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-s-50398b136/?
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Other contributors
Mavis Zhou (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jiahui-mavis-zhou-a4537814a?
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Change Log

Date (YYYY-MM-DD) Version Changed By Change Description

2022-01-10 2.1 Malika Removed the readme for GitShare

2020-08-26 2.0 Lavanya Moved lab to course repo in GitLab

© IBM Corporation 2020. All rights reserved.

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