ITERATION,

SIMPLE NUMERICAL PROGRAMS

CS115
Introduction to Programming in Python

Week 3

Slides are mostly adapted from MIT Open Courseware

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 LAST WEEK

▶ string object type

▶ string manipulations
▶ branching and conditionals
▶ indentation

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 THIS WEEK

▶ iteration
● while loops
● for loops
▶ string manipulation with for loops
▶ simple numerical programs
● guess and check algorithms
● approximate solutions
● bisection method

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CONTROL FLOW: Iteration / Repetition

▶ Repetition statements allow us to execute a

statement multiple times
▶ Often they are referred to as loops
▶ Python has two kinds of repetition statements:
▶ while loops
▶ for loops

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CONTROL FLOW: while LOOPS

▶ <condition> evaluates to a Boolean

▶ if <condition> is True, do all the steps inside the while code

block

▶ check <condition> again

▶ repeat until <condition> is False

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Flow chart for iteration

▶ Test is a boolean expression

▶ As long as Test is True, Loop Body is executed
▶ If Test is False, execution resumes at the code following
the statement
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While Loop Examples
▶ Write a Python script that does the following. Assume you deposit 10000TL into a
bank account, output the number of years it takes to double the original
investment, assuming a yearly interest rate of 15%.
▶ See: investment.py
▶ In a biology experiment a microorganism population doubles every 10 hours. Write a
Python program to input the initial number of microorganisms and output how long
(days and remaining hours) it will take to have more than 1000000 organisms.
▶ See: biology.py
▶ Write a Python script that inputs positive integers until a negative value is input.
The program should output the average of the values input.
▶ See: average.py
▶ Write a Python guessing game program. The program should generate a random int
between 1 and 10. The user has 3 guesses to guess correctly. The program should
output an appropriate message if the user guesses correctly/does not guess
correctly.
▶ See: while_game.py

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 CONTROL FLOW: for LOOPS

▶ range function generates a sequence of integers

▶ Each time through the loop, <variable> takes a value from
that sequence
▶ The first iteration, <variable> starts at the first value in the
sequence
▶ The next iteration, <variable> gets the next value in the
sequence
▶ Example (print “hello” 100 times): 8
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 for loop Example
▶ Example (print “hello” 100 times):
for i in range(100):
print(‘hello’)

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range(start, stop, step)
▶ The range function generates a list of numbers, generally used to
iterate with for loops
▶ The function has 3 parameters:
▶ start: starting number of the sequence
▶ stop: generate numbers up to but not including the stopping
value
▶ step: update/difference between each number in the
sequence.
▶ default values are start = 0 and step = 1 and optional
▶ loop until value is stop - 1

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Examples: range function

mysum = 0
Output:
for i in range(5, 11, 2): 21
mysum += i
print(mysum)

mysum = 0
Output:
for i in range(7, 10):
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mysum += i
print(mysum)

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Examples: range function
x = 4 Output:
0
for i in range(x):
1
print(i) 2
3

x = 4 Output:
for i in range(0,x): 0
1
print(i) 2
3

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For Loop Examples
▶ Write a Python program to input the status (F - Full-time, P-Part-time) and
the salary of 10 instructors and output:
● the number of full-time instructors.
● the average salary of all instructors.
▶ See: salary.py

▶ Write a Python program to input 12 temperature values (one for each month)
and display the number of the month with the highest temperature.
▶ See: temperatures.py

▶ Write a Python guessing game program. The program should generate a

random int between 1 and 10. The user has 3 guesses to guess correctly. The
program should output an appropriate message if the user guesses
correctly/does not guess correctly.
▶ See: game.py

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Choosing the Correct Type of Loop
▶ Choosing the right loop type makes your code more legible and can
also help prevent bugs
▶ Everything that can be written with a for loop can be written with a
while loop, but while loops can solve some problems that for loops
don't address easily
▶ In general, use for loops when you know the number of iterations you
need to do - e.g., 500 trials, one operation per character in a string,
or an action on every element in a list
▶ If you can describe the problem you're trying to solve in terms of each
or every element in an iterable object, use a for loop
▶ Using a for loop when possible will decrease the risk of writing an
infinite loop and will generally prevent you from running into errors
with incrementing counter variables
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 Nested Loops
▶ Nested Loop means a loop within another loop
▶ For each iteration of the outer loop is executed, the inner loop is
executed completely
for i in range(1, 6, 2):

for j in range(6, 0, -3):

print("i = " + str(i) + "\tj = " + str(j))

Output:
i = 1 j = 6
i = 1 j = 3
i = 3 j = 6
i = 3 j = 3
i = 5 j = 6
i = 5 j = 3 19
A program that prints a triangle of stars
MAX_ROWS = 10
for row in range(1, MAX_ROWS + 1, 1):
for star in range(1, row+1, 1):
print(‘*’, end=' ')
print()

Output:
*
* *
* * *
* * * *
* * * * *
* * * * * *
* * * * * * *
* * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
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Nested for Loop

▶ See multiplicationTable.py

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Nested for Loop - Stars
▶ Write a program to display the triangle of stars below.

▶ See: stars2.py

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Examples: for loops and Strings
Output:
a
for c in 'abcdef': b
print(c) c
d
e
f

Output:
a
letters = 'abcdef'
b
for c in range(0, len(letters)): c
print(letters[c]) d
e
f
Examples: for loops and Strings

▶ The following code segments do the same thing

▶ The second one is more “pythonic”

s = "abcdefgh"
for index in range(len(s)):
if s[index] == 'i' or s[index] == 'u':
print("There is an ior u")

for char in s:
if char == 'i' or char == 'u':
print("There is an i or u")
Code Example – Strings and Loops
an_letters= "aefhilmnorsxAEFHILMNORSX" an_letters= "aefhilmnorsxAEFHILMNORSX"
word = input("I will cheer! Enter word: ") word = input("I will cheer! Enter word: ")
times = int(input("Energy level (1-10): ")) times = int(input("Energy level (1-10): "))
i = 0 for char in word:
while i < len(word): if char in an_letters:
char = word[i] print("Give me an " + char + "! " + char)
if char in an_letters: else:
print("Give me an " + char + "! " + char) print("Give me a " + char + "! " + char)
else:
print("Give me a " + char + "! " + char) print("What does that spell?")
i += 1 for i in range(times):
print(word, "!!!")
print("What does that spell?")
for i in range(times):
print(word, "!!!")

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Exercise - What is Output?
s1 = "Bilkent u rock"
s2 = "i rule Bilkent"
if len(s1) == len(s2):
for char1 in s1:
for char2 in s2:
if char1 == char2:
print("common letter")
break

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 What Happens when Code Executes?
▶ Python Tutor is a useful tool that can help you visualize
what happens during the program execution – the values
of variables and how they change while the program runs.
▶ It allows you to copy/paste your own code into an online
editor and trace the step by step execution of your
program.
▶ To visualize the code from the previous slide:
https://goo.gl/iZGsP4

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Some Simple Numerical Programs

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Terms of Use
➢ This presentation was adapted from lecture materials provided in MIT
Introduction to Computer Science and Programming in Python.
➢ Licenced under terms of Creative Commons License.

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