Python-2mark Q A
Python-2mark Q A
QUESTION BANK
UNIT I
ALGORITHMIC PROBLEM SOLVING
PART- A (2 Marks)
1. What is an algorithm?
the problem. It is a step- by-step procedure for solving a task or a problem. The steps must
be ordered, unambiguous and finite in number.
Statements
Sequence
Selection or Conditional
Repetition or Control flow
Functions
Control flow (or flow of control) is the order in which individual statements, instructions or
function calls of an imperative program are executed or evaluated. A control flow statement is
a statement in which execution results in a choice being made as to which of two or more
paths to follow.
7. What is a function?
Functions are "self-contained" modules of code that accomplish a specific task. Functions
usually "take in" data, process it, and "return" a result. Once a function is written, it can be used
over and over and over again. Functions can be "called" from the inside of other functions.
8. Write the pseudo code to calculate the sum and product displaying the answer on the
monitor screen.
Flowchart and Pseudo code are used to document and represent the algorithm. In other words,
an algorithm can be represented using a flowchart or a pseudo code. Flowchart is a graphical
representation of the algorithm. Pseudo code is a readable, formally styled English like language
representation of the algorithm.
(2) The direction of flow in a flowchart must be from top to bottom and left to right, and
(3) The relevant symbols must be used while drawing a flowchart.
An assembly language directly controls the physical hardware. A program written in assembly
language consists of a series of instructions mnemonics that correspond to a stream of executable
instructions, when translated by an assembler can be loaded into memory and executed. The
programs written in this language are not portable and the debugging process is also not very
easy.
A high level language is much more abstract, that must be translated or compiled in to
machine language. It is easily understandable and the programs are portable. Debugging the code is easy
and the program written is not machine dependent.
Recursion Iteration
Function calls itself until the base condition is Repetition of process until the condition fails.
reached.
Only base condition (terminating condition) is It involves four steps: initialization, condition,
specified. execution and updation.
It keeps our code short and simple. Iterative approach makes our code longer.
It is slower than iteration due to overhead of Iteration is faster.
maintaining stack.
It takes more memory than iteration due
to Iteration takes less memory.
overhead of maintaining stack.
20. What are advantages and disadvantages of recursion?
Advantages Disadvantages
Sometimes the logic behind recursion is hard
Recursive functions make the code look clean to
and elegant. follow through.
-State
-Control flow
-Functions
Statements:
-Input/Output Statement
-Assignment Statement
-Control Statement
State:
-Initial state
-Current state
-Final state
Control flow:
-Sequence
The sequence structure is the construct where one statement is executed after
another -Selection
The selection structure is the construct where statements can executed or skipped depending on whether
a condition evaluates to TRUE or FALSE. There are three selection structures in C:
1. IF
2. IF – ELSE
3. SWITCH
-Repetition
The repetition structure is the construct where statements can be executed repeatedly until a condition
evaluates to TRUE or FALSE. There are two repetition structures in C:
1. WHILE
2. FOR
Functions:
A function is a block of organized reusable code that is used to perform a single action.
2. Briefly describe iteration and recursion. Illustrate with an example.
ITERATION:
3 It is faster It is slower
Step 1: Start
Step 2: Read number n
factorial(n)
Step 1: Initialize f=1,i=1
Step 3: Return f
Step 1: Start
Step 2: Read number n
Step 5: Stop
factorial(n)
Step 1: If n==1 then return 1
Step 2: Else
f=n*factorial(n-1)
Step 3: Return f
3. Explain in detail Algorithmic problem solving.
4
4. Write an algorithm and draw a flowchart to calculate 2 .
Algorithm:
Step 1: Start
Step 2: Initialize the value of result, r=1.
Step 3: Repeat step4 for 4 times
Flowchart:
5. a) Describe pseudo code with its guidelines.
Pseudo code consists of short, readable and formally-styled English language used for explaining an
algorithm. Pseudo code does not include details like variable declarations, subroutines etc.
In a pseudo code, some terms are commonly used to represent the various
actions. For example,
The selection constructs—if statement and case statement. In the if-statement, if the condition is true
then the THEN part is executed otherwise the ELSE part is executed. There can be variations of the if-
statement also, like there may not be any ELSE part or there may be nested ifs. The case statement is
used where there are a number of conditions to be checked. In a case statement, depending on the
value of the expression, one of the conditions is true, for which the corresponding statements are
executed. If no match for the expression occurs, then the OTHERS option which is also the default
option, is executed.
SET numlist=[ ]
GET n
FOR i=1 to n
GET numlist elements
ENDFOR
IF (n > maximum)
maximum = n
ENDIF
ENDFOR PRINT
maximum
END
Pseudocode
START
Procedure Hanoi(disk, source, dest, aux)
IF disk = = 0, THEN
ELSE
Hanoi(disk - 1, source, aux, dest)
move disk from source to dest
Hanoi(disk - 1, aux, dest, source)
END IF
END Procedure
6. a) What is flowchart?
Algorithm:
Step 1: Start
Step 2 : Read the basic salary
Step 3 : IF the basic is greater than or equal to 4000 ELSE Goto Step 4
Step 3.1 : DA= 0.32 * basic (Dearness Allowance)
Step 3,2 : HRA = 0.15 * basic (House Rent Allowance)
Algorithm:
step 1: Start the program
Pseudocode:
BEGIN
READ n
READ Guess = 20
IF Guess> n
print"Your Guess too High" elif Guess< n
ELSE
print"Nope"
Step 1: Start
Step 7: i=i+1
Step 8: go to step 5
Algorithm:
Step 1 : Start
Step 2 : Initialize the value of minimum = 0
Pseudocode:
BEGIN
SET numlist=[ ]
GET n
FOR i=1 to n
GET numlist elements
ENDFOR
SET minimum = numlist[0]
FOR i in numlist
IF (n < minimum)
minimum = n
ENDIF
ENDFOR
PRINT minimum
END
UNIT II
DATA, EXPRESSIONS, STATEMENTS
PART- A (2 Marks)
The Python interpreter can be invoked by typing the command "python" without any
parameter followed by the "return" key at the shell prompt.
Interactive mode is a command line shell which gives immediate feedback for each statement,
while running previously fed statements in active memory. As new lines are fed into the interpreter,
the fed program is evaluated both in part and in whole.
A value is one of the fundamental things – like a letter or a number – that a program manipulates. Its
types are: integer, float, boolean, strings and lists.
6. Define a variable and write down the rules for naming a variable.
A name that refers to a value is a variable. Variable names can be arbitrarily long. They can
contain both letters and numbers, but they have to begin with a letter. It is legal to use uppercase
letters, but it is good to begin variable names with a lowercase letter.
A keyword is a reserved word that is used by the compiler to parse a program. Keywords
cannot be used as variable names. Some of the keywords used in python are: and, del, from, not,
while, is, continue.
A statement is an instruction that the Python interpreter can execute. There are two types of
statements: print and assignment statement.
Eg 2: n = 17
A tuple is a sequence of immutable Python objects. Tuples are sequences, like lists. The
differences between tuples and lists are, the tuples cannot be changed unlike lists and tuples use
parentheses, whereas lists use square brackets. Creating a tuple is as simple as putting different
comma-separated values. Comma-separated values between parentheses can also be used.
12. What do you mean by an operand and an operator? Illustrate your answer with relevant
example.
An operator is a symbol that specifies an operation to be performed on the operands. The data
items that an operator acts upon are called operands. The operators +, -, *, / and ** perform addition,
subtraction, multiplication, division and exponentiation. Example: 20+32
13. What is the order in which operations are evaluated? Give the order of precedence.
The set of rules that govern the order in which expressions involving multiple operators and
operands are evaluated is known as rule of precedence. Parentheses have the highest precedence
followed by exponentiation. Multiplication and division have the next highest precedence followed
by addition and subtraction.
strings.
Example:
>>> ‘Hello*3’
Output: HelloHelloHello
>>>’Hello+World’
Output: HelloWorld
Output:
a. 32.0 The float function converts integers to floating-point numbers.
In order to ensure that a function is defined before its first use, we have to know the order in
which statements are executed, which is called the flow of execution. Execution always begins at the
first statement of the program. Statements are executed one at a time, in order from top to bottom.
second = 'warbler'
print first + second
Output:
throatwarbler
STATEMENTS
The operation that divides two numbers and chops off the fraction part is known as floor
division.
Automatic method to convert between data types is called type coercion. For mathematical
operators, if any one operand is a float, the other is automatically converted to float.
Eg:
> minute = 59
> minute / 60.0
0.983333333333
0.707106781187
A list of the functions that tells us what program file the error occurred in, and what line,
and what functions were executing at the time. It also shows the line of code that caused the error.
1. What is the role of an interpreter? Give a detailed note on python interpreter and
interactive mode of operation.
An interpreter is a computer program that executes instructions written in a programming
language. It can either
translates the source code in a first step into a more efficient representation and executes this
code
$ python
>>>
Once the Python interpreter is started, you can issue any command at the command prompt ">>>".
For example,let us print the "Hello World" statement:
> 3
3
>
Typing an end-of-file character (Ctrl+D on Unix, Ctrl+Z on Windows) at the primary prompt causes
the interpreter to exit with a zero exit status. If that doesn’t work, you can exit the interpreter by
typing the following command: quit().
When commands are read from a tty, the interpreter is said to be in interactive mode. In this mode it
prompts for the next command with the primary prompt, usually three greater-than signs (>>>); for
continuation lines it prompts with the secondary prompt, by default three dots (...). The interpreter
prints a welcome message stating its version number and a copyright notice before printing the first
prompt:
Continuation lines are needed when entering a multi-line construct. As an example, take a look at this
if statement:
> the_world_is_flat = 1
> if the_world_is_flat:
A variable is a name that refers to a value. An assignment statement creates new variables and
gives them values:
Variable names can be arbitrarily long. They can contain both letters and numbers, but they
have to begin with a letter. It is legal to use uppercase letters, but it is a good idea to
The underscore character, _, can appear in a name. It is often used in names with
multiple words, such as my_name or variable_name.
(b) List down the different types of operators with suitable examples.
3. What do you mean by rule of precedence? List out the order of precedence and demonstrate in
detail with example.
When more than one operator appears in an expression, the order of evaluation depends on the rules
of precedence. For mathematical operators, Python follows mathematical convention. The acronym
PEMDAS is a useful way to remember the rules,
• Parentheses have the highest precedence and can be used to force an expression to evaluate in the
order you want. Since expressions in parentheses are evaluated first,
You can also use parentheses to make an expression easier to read, as in (minute * 100) / 60, even if
it doesn’t change the result.
• Exponentiation has the next highest precedence, so 2**1+1 is 3, not 4 and 3*1**3 is 3, not 27.
• Multiplication and Division have the same precedence, which is higher than Addition and
Subtraction, which also have the same precedence. So 2*3-1 is 5, not 4, and 6+4/2 is 8, not 5.
• Operators with the same precedence are evaluated from left to right (except exponentiation).
So in the expression degrees / 2 * pi, the division happens first and the result is multiplied by pi. To
divide by 2π, you can use parentheses or write degrees / 2 / pi.
4. Explain the role of function call and function definition with example.
A function is a named sequence of statements that performs a computation. When you define
a function, you specify the name and the sequence of statements. Later, you can “call” the
function by name.
> type(32)
<type 'int'>
The name of the function is type. The expression in parentheses is called the argument of the
function. The result, for this function, is the type of the argument. A function “takes” an
argument and “returns” a result. The result is called the return value.
Python provides built-in functions that convert values from one type to another. The int function
takes any value and converts it to an integer, if it can, or complains otherwise:
> int('32')
32
> int('Hello')
> int(3.99999)
3
> int(-2.3)
-2
> float('3.14159')
3.14159
Python has a math module that provides most of the familiar mathematical functions.
A module is a file that contains a collection of related functions.
This statement creates a module object named math. If you print the module object,
you get some information about it:
The module object contains the functions and variables defined in the module. To
access one of the functions,specify the name of the module and the name of the
function, separated by a dot (also known as a period). This format is called dot notation.
The first example uses log10 to compute a signal-to-noise ratio in decibels (assuming
that signal_power and noise_power are defined). The math module also provides log,
which computes logarithms base e.
The second example finds the sine of radians. The name of the variable is a hint that sin
and the other trigonometric functions (cos, tan, etc.) take arguments in radians. To
convert from degrees to radians, divide by 360 and multiply by 2π:
> degrees = 45
> radians = degrees / 360.0 * 2 * math.pi
> math.sin(radians)
0.707106781187
The expression math.pi gets the variable pi from the math module. The value of
this variable is an approximation of π, accurate to about 15 digits.
>>> math.sqrt(2) /
2.0 0.707106781187
y = 10
x=y
y = temp
7. Write a Python program to check whether a given year is a leap year or not.
if (year % 4) == 0:
if (year % 100) == 0: if
(year % 400) == 0:
print("%d is a leap
year"%year) else:
A boolean expression is an expression that is either true or false. The values true and false are
Eg :
> 5 ==
6 False
True and False are special values that belongs to the type bool; they are not strings:
Bitwise Operator (& (and), | (or) , ^ (binary Xor), ~(binary 1’s complement , << (binary left
shift), >> (binary right shift))
Identity(is, is not)
The modulus operator works on integers and yields the remainder when the first operand is
divided by the second. In Python, the modulus operator is a percent sign (%). The syntax is the same
as for other operators:
Eg:
> remainder = 7 % 3
> print remainder
1
So 7 divided by 3 is 2 with 1 left over.
The ability to check the condition and change the behavior of the program accordingly is called
conditional execution. Example:
If statement:
Syntax:
if
statement:
Eg:
if x > 0:
The boolean expression after ‘if’ is called the condition. If it is true, then the indented
A second form of if statement is alternative execution, that is, if …else, where there are two
possibilities and the condition determines which one to execute.
Eg:
if x%2 == 0:
Sometimes there are more than two possibilities and we need more than two branches. One
way to express a computation like that is a chained conditional:
Eg:
if x < y:
elif is an abbreviation of “else if.” Again, exactly one branch will be executed. There is no limit on
the number of elif statements. If there is an else clause, it has to be at the end, but there doesn’t have
to be one.
def countdown(n):
while n > 0:
print n
n = n-1
print 'Blastoff!'
More formally, here is the flow of execution for a while statement:
1. Evaluate the condition, yielding True or False.
2. If the condition is false, exit the while statement and continue execution at the next statement.
3. If the condition is true, execute the body and then go back to step 1
Eg:
x=4
When a break statement is encountered inside a loop, the loop is immediately terminated and
the program control resumes at the next statement following the loop.
Eg:
while True:
line = raw_input('>')
if line == 'done':
break
print line
print'Done!'
The continue statement works somewhat like a break statement. Instead of forcing
termination, it forces the next iteration of the loop to take place, skipping any code in between.
Eg:
for num in range(2,10):
if num%2==0;
print “Found an even number”, num
continue
print “Found a number”, num
Return gives back or replies to the caller of the function. The return statement causes our
function to exit and hand over back a value to its caller.
Eg:
def area(radius):
temp = math.pi *
radius**2 return temp
Composition:
Calling one function from another is called composition.
Eg:
def circle_area(xc, yc, xp, yp):
return result
The process in which a function calls itself directly or indirectly is called recursion and the
corresponding function is called as recursive function.
Eg:
def factorial(n):
if n == 1:
return 1
else:
return n * factorial(n-1)
The scope of a variable refers to the places that we can see or access a variable. If we define a
variable on the top of the script or module, the variable is called global variable. The variables that
are defined inside a class or function is called local variable.
Eg:
def my_local():
a=10
Eg:
a=10
def my_global():
String Slices :
A method is similar to a function—it takes arguments and returns a value—but the syntax is
different. For example, the method upper takes a string and returns a new string with all uppercase
letters:
The string module contains number of useful constants and classes, as well as some
deprecated legacy functions that are also available as methods on strings.
Eg:
Program: Output:
import string upper => MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING
text = "Monty Python's Flying Circus" CIRCUS
lower => monty python's flying circus
print "upper", "=>", string.upper(text)
split => ['Monty', "Python's", 'Flying', 'Circus']
print "lower", "=>", string.lower(text)
join => Monty+Python's+Flying+Circus
print "split", "=>", string.split(text)
pri "join", string.join(string.split(text) replace => Monty Java's Flying Circus
nt "=>", ,
"+ find => 6 -1
")
pri count => 3
nt "replace", "=>",string.replace(text,
"Python", "Java")
print "find", "=>", string.find(text, "Python"),
string.find(text, "Java")
print "count", "=>", string.count(text, "n")
20. What is the purpose of pass statement?
Eg:
def bar():
pass
Multiplies o eithe
* Multiplication values n r a * b = 200
side of the
operator
Performs powe
** Exponent exponential r a**b =10
calculation on operators
Th divisio o
// Floor Division e n f operands 9//2 = 4 and 9.0//2.0 = 4.0
where the result is the
quotient in which the digits
after the decimal point are
removed
ii) Python Comparison Operators
These operators compare the values on either sides of them and decide the relation among them. They
are also called Relational operators.
becomes true
There are three logical operators: and, or, and not. For example, x > 0 and x < 10 is true only
if x is greater than 0 and less than 10. n%2 == 0 or n%3 == 0 is true if either of the conditions
is true, that is, if the number is divisible by 2 or 3. Finally, the not operator negates a Boolean
expression, so not(x > y) is true if x > y is false, that is, if x is less than or equal to y. Non
zero number is said to be true in Boolean expressions.
c += a is equivalent to c = c
+= Add AND It adds right operand to the +
left operand and assign
the a
result to left
operand
I rig operan
-= Subtract AND t subtracts ht d c -= a is equivalent to c = c -
from the left operand and a
assign the result to left
operan
d
Perfor
**= Exponent AND ms exponential power c **= a is equivalent to c = c
calculation on operators and ** a
assign value to the left
operan
d
c //= a is equivalent to c =
//= Floor Division It performs floor division on c //
operators and assign value
to a
the left
operand
Syntax:
if
statement:
Eg:
if x > 0:
The boolean expression after ‘if’ is called the condition. If it is true, then the indented
statement gets executed. If not, nothing happens. if statements have the same structure as
function definitions: a header followed by an indented body. Statements like this are called
compound statements. There is no limit on the number of statements that can appear in the
body, but there has to be at least one. Occasionally, it is useful to have a body with no
statements .In that case, you can use the pass statement, which does nothing. if x < 0:
A second form of if statement is alternative execution, in which there are two possibilities
and the condition determines which one gets executed. The syntax looks like this:
Eg:
if x%2 == 0:
else:
If the remainder when x is divided by 2 is 0, then we know that x is even, and the program displays a
message to that effect. If the condition is false, the second set of statements is executed. Since the
condition must be true or false, exactly one of the alternatives will be executed. The alternatives are
called branches, because they are branches in the flow of execution.
Chained conditionals(if-elif-else):
Sometimes there are more than two possibilities and we need more than two branches.
One way to express a computation like that is a chained conditional:
Eg:
if x < y:
elif x > y:
print 'x is greater than y'
else:
elif is an abbreviation of “else if.” Again, exactly one branch will be executed. There is no limit on
the number of elif statements. If there is an else clause, it has to be at the end, but there doesn’t have
to be one.
Eg:
if choice == 'a':
draw_a()
elif choice =='b':
draw_b()
draw_c()
Each condition is checked in order. If the first is false, the next is checked, and so on. If one of them
is true, the corresponding branch executes, and the statement ends. Even if more than one condition is
true, only the first true branch executes.
Return values
Some of the built-in functions we have used, such as the math functions, produce results.
Calling the function generates a value, which we usually assign to a variable or use as part of
an expression.
The first example is area, which returns the area of a circle with the given
radius: Eg:
def area(radius):
temp = math.pi *
radius**2 return temp
We have seen the return statement before, but in a fruitful function the return statement
includes an expression. This statement means: “Return immediately from this function and use
the following expression as a return value.” The expression can be arbitrarily complicated, so
we could have written this function more concisely:
def area(radius):
On the other hand, temporary variables like temp often make debugging easier. Sometimes it is
useful to have multiple return statements, one in each branch of a conditional:
def absolute_value(x):
if x < 0:
return -x
else:
return x
approx = better
print(approx)
5. Explain RECURSION.
The process in which a function calls itself directly or indirectly is called recursion and the
corresponding function is called as recursive function. Using recursive algorithm, certain
problems can be solved quite easily. Examples of such problems are Towers of Hanoi (TOH),
Inorder/Preorder/Postorder Tree Traversals, DFS of Graph, etc.
Python program:
def fact(n):
if n == 1:
return n
else:
return n*fact(n-1)
String slices
Monty
>>> print s[6:12]
The operator [n:m]returns the part of the string from the “n-eth” character to the “m-eth”
character, including the first but excluding the last. If you omit the first index (before the colon), the
slice starts at the beginning of the string. If you omit the second index, the slice goes to the end of
the string:
'ban'
> fruit[3:]
'ana'
If the first index is greater than or equal to the second the result is an empty string, represented by
two quotation marks:
> fruit[3:3]
An empty string contains no characters and has length 0, but other than that, it is the same as any
other string.
String immutability.
Python strings are immutable. ‘a’ is not a string. It is a variable with string value. You can’t mutate
the string but can change what value of the variable to a new string. Eg:
a = “foo”
# a now points to
foo b=a
# a points to the new string “foofoo”, but b points to the same old “foo”
print a
print b
# Output
#foofoo
#foo
It is observed that b hasn’t changed even though ‘a’ has changed the value.
Another useful function is lower, which converts text into lower case.
Eg:
Other useful functions will search a string for a given text value, or strip leading or trailing
white space from a string. An alternative version of split takes as argument the separator string.
The string is broken into a list using the separator as a division. This can be useful, for example,
for breaking a file path name into parts:
> pathname.split(‘/’)
The inverse of split is the function join. The argument to join is a list of strings. The value to the
left of the dot is the separator that will be placed between each element. Often this is simply an
empty string. The values in the list are laminated along with the separator to produce the result
string.
> pri
nt ‘::’.join(lst)
abc::pdq::xyz
String methods
A method is similar to a function—it takes arguments and returns a value—but the syntax is
different. For example, the method upper takes a string and returns a new string with all uppercase
letters:
Instead of the function syntax upper(word), it uses the method syntax word.upper()
.>>> word = 'banana'
> new_word = word.upper()
BANANA
This form of dot notation specifies the name of the method, upper, and the name of the string to
apply the method to, word. The empty parentheses indicate that this method takes no argument. A
method call is called an invocation ; in this case, we would say that we are invoking upper on the
word. As it turns out, there is a string method named find that is remarkably similar to the function
we wrote:
In this example, we invoke find on word and pass the letter we are looking for as a parameter.
Actually, the find method is more general than our function; it can find substrings, not just
characters:
> word.find('na')
> word.find('n', 3)
> name.find('b', 1, 2)
-1
This search fails because b does not appear in the index range from 1 to 2 (not including 2).
The string module contains number of useful constants and classes, as well as some deprecated
legacy functions that are also available as methods on strings. Eg:
import string
d1=int(input("Enter a number:"))
d2=int(input("Enter another number"))
rem=d1%d2
while rem!=0 :
print(rem)
d1=d2
d2=rem
rem=d1%d2
print("gcd of given numbers is : %d" %(d2))
print("Calculation of X^Y")
x=int(input("Enter X Value :"))
a.apppend (element)
print (“ The list is: ”)
print a
print ( “ The Sum is : ”)
b = sum_arr(a,n)
print(b)
13. Write a Python program to perform linear search.
data = []
data = []
n = int(input('Enter Number of Elements in the Array: '))
print('Enter the Elements in Ascending Order' )
for i in range(0, n):
x = int(input('Enter the Element %d :' %(i+1)))
data.append(x)
e= int(input('Enter the Element to be Search '))
first = 0
last = n-1
found = False
while( first<=last and not found):
mid = (first + last)/2
if int(data[mid]) == e :
found = True
else:
if e < int(data[mid]):
last = mid - 1
else:
first = mid + 1
if found:
print('Element %d Found at Position %d ' %(e,mid+1))
else:
print('Element %d is Not Found in the Array '%(e))
UNIT IV
LISTS, TUPLES AND DICTIONARIES
PART- A (2 Marks)
1. What is a list?
A list is an ordered set of values, where each value is identified by an index. The values that make up
a list are called its elements. Lists are similar to strings, which are ordered sets of characters, except
that the elements of a list can have any type.
3.Let list = [’a’, ’b’, ’c’, ’d’, ’e’, ’f’]. Find a) list[1:3] b) t[:4] c) t[3:] .
List is a mutable type meaning that it can be modified whereas dictionary is immutable and is a key
value store. Dictionary is not ordered and it requires that the keys are hashable whereas list can
store a sequence of objects in a certain order.
> numbers[1] = 5
An object with more than one reference has more than one name, then the object is said to be
aliased. Example: If a refers to an object and we assign b = a, then both variables refer to the
same object:
> a = [1, 2, 3]
> b=a
> b is a True
In order to modify a list and also keep a copy of the original, it is required to make a copy of
the list itself, not just the reference. This process is called cloning, to avoid the ambiguity of the
word “copy”.
Passing a list as an argument actually passes a reference to the list, not a copy of the list. For
example, the function head takes a list as an argument and returns the first element:
def head(list):
return list[0]
output:
> head(numbers)
> deleteHead(numbers)
11. Write a program in Python returns a list that contains all but the first element of the
given list.
def tail(list):
return list[1:]
Here’s how tail is used:
It is often useful to swap the values of two variables. With conventional assignments a
temporary variable would be used. For example, to swap a and b:
> temp = a
> a=b
> b = temp
> a, b = b, a
The elements of a dictionary appear in a comma-separated list. Each entry contains an index and a
value separated by a colon. In a dictionary, the indices are called keys, so the elements are called key-
value pairs.
(or mapped) to a value. The values of a dictionary can be any Python data type. So dictionaries are
unordered key-value-pairs.
Example:
>>> eng2sp = {} # empty dictionary
> eng2sp[’one’] = ’uno’
> eng2sp[’two’] = ’dos’
A function can only return one value, but if the value is a tuple, the effect is the same as returning
multiple values. For example, if we want to divide two integers and compute the quotient and
remainder, it is inefficient to compute x/y and then x%y. It is better to compute them both at the same
time.
> t = divmod(7, 3)
> print t (2, 1)
A method is similar to a function—it takes arguments and returns a value— but the syntax is
different. For example, the keys method takes a dictionary and returns a list of the keys that appear,
but instead of the function syntax keys(eng2sp), method syntax eng2sp.keys() is used.
y = 10
temp = x
x=y
y = temp
print('The value of x after swapping: {}'.format(x))
print('The value of y after swapping: {}'.format(y))
The list comprehension starts with a '[' and ']', to help us remember that the result is going to be a
list. The basic syntax is [expression for item in list if conditional ].
A list is an ordered set of values, where each value is identified by an index. The values that make up a list
are called its elements. Lists are similar to strings, which are ordered sets of characters, except that the
elements of a list can have any type. There are several ways to create a new list. The simplest is to enclose
the elements in square brackets ([and]):
The following list contains a string, a float, an integer, and (mirabile dictu) another list:
A list within another list is said to be nested. Lists that contain consecutive integers are common, so Python
provides a simple way to create them:
LIST OPERATIONS
LIST SLICES
Since lists are mutable, it is often useful to make a copy before performing operations that fold, spindle or
mutilate lists. A slice operator on the left side of an assignment can update multiple elements:
Much like the slice of a string is a substring, the slice of a list is a list. However, lists differ from strings in
that we can assign new values to the items in a list:
> list[1] = 17
> list
[2, 17, 'usurp', 9.0, 'n']
We can assign new values to slices of the lists, which don't even have to be the same length:
It's even possible to append items onto the start of lists by assigning to an empty slice:
Similarly, you can append to the end of the list by specifying an empty slice after the end:
> list[len(list):] = ['four', 'score']
> list
[3.14, 2.71, 2, 'opportunistic', 'elk', 'n', 'four', 'score']
The right-hand side of a list assignment statement can be any iterable type:
With slicing you can create copy of list since slice returns a new list:
Note, however, that this is a shallow copy and contains references to elements from the original list, so be
careful with mutable types:
> list_copy[2].append('something')
> original
Non-Continuous slices
It is also possible to get non-continuous parts of an array. If one wanted to get every n-th occurrence of a
list, one would use the :: operator. The syntax is a:b:n where a and b are the start and end of the slice to be
operated upon.
2. Explain in detail about list methods and list loops with examples.
Python provides methods that operate on lists. Some of the methods are
Append()
Extend()
Sort()
Pop()
> t.append('d')
> t1.extend(t2)
This example leaves t2 unmodified. sort arranges the elements of the list from low to high:
> t.sort()
Remove the item in the list at the index i and return it. If i is not given, remove the the last item in the list and
return it.
> list = [1, 2, 3, 4]
> a = list.pop(0)
> list
[2, 3, 4]
> a
List methods are all void; they modify the list and return None.
LIST LOOPS
Here are two functions that both generate ten million random numbers, and return the sum of the numbers.
import random
joe = random.Random()
def sum1():
for i in range(10000000):
num = joe.randrange(1000 )
xs.append(num)
# Save it in our list
tot = sum(xs)
return tot
def sum2():
tot = 0
for i in range(10000000):
num = joe.randrange(1000)
tot += num
return tot
print(sum1())
print(sum2())
3. Explain in detail about mutability and tuples with a Python program.
MUTABILITY
Unlike strings, lists are mutable, which means we can change their elements. Using the bracket operator on
the left side of an assignment, we can update one of the elements:
We can also remove elements from a list by assigning the empty list to them:
> list[1:3] = []
And we can add elements to a list by squeezing them into an empty slice at the desired location:
Tuple assignment
It is often useful to swap the values of two variables. With conventional assignments, you have to use a
temporary variable. For example, to swap a and b:
> temp = a
> a=b
> b = temp
>>> a, b = b, a
The left side is a tuple of variables; the right side is a tuple of expressions. Each value is assigned to its
respective variable. All the expressions on the right side are evaluated before any of the assignments. The
number of variables on the left and the number of values on the right have to be the same:
>>> a, b = 1, 2, 3
ValueError: too many values to unpack More generally, the right side can be any kind of sequence (string,
list or tuple). For example, to split an email address into a user name and a domain, you could write:
The return value from split is a list with two elements; the first element is assigned to uname, the second to
domain.
It is often useful to swap the values of two variables. With conventional assignments, you have to use a
temporary variable. For example, to swap a and b:
> temp = a
> a=b
> b = temp
>>> a, b = b, a
The left side is a tuple of variables; the right side is a tuple of expressions. Each value is assigned to its
respective variable. All the expressions on the right side are evaluated before any of the assignments. The
number of variables on the left and the number of values on the right have to be the same:
>>> a, b = 1, 2, 3
ValueError: too many values to unpack More generally, the right side can be any kind of sequence (string,
list or tuple). For example, to split an email address into a user name and a domain, you could write:
The return value from split is a list with two elements; the first element is assigned to uname, the second to
domain.
Yes, it is possible to return tuple as values. Example: Functions can return tuples as return values. For
example, we could write a function that swaps two parameters:
return y, x
Then we can assign the return value to a tuple with two variables:
a, b = swap(a, b)
In this case, there is no great advantage in making swap a function. In fact, there is a danger in trying to
encapsulate swap, which is the following tempting mistake:
x, y = y, x
If we call this function like this: swap(a, b) then a and x are aliases for the same value. Changing x inside
swap makes x refer to a different value, but it has no effect on a in main. Similarly, changing y has no effect
on b. This function runs without producing an error message, but it doesn’t do what we intended. This is an
example of a semantic error.
The built-in function divmod takes two arguments and returns a tuple of two values, the quotient and
remainder. You can store the result as a tuple:
> t = divmod(7, 3)
Here is an example of a function that returns a tuple: def min_max(t): return min(t), max(t) max and min are
built-in functions that find the largest and smallest elements of a sequence. min_max computes both and
returns a tuple of two values.
DICTIONARIES
A dictionary is like a list, but more general. In a list, the indices have to be integers; in a dictionary they can
be (almost) any type. You can think of a dictionary as a mapping between a set of indices (which are called
keys) and a set of values. Each key maps to a value. The association of a key and a value is called a key-
value pair or sometimes an item. As an example, we’ll build a dictionary that maps from English to Spanish
words, so the keys and the values are all strings.
The function dict creates a new dictionary with no items. Because dict is the name of a built-in function,
you should avoid using it as a variable name.
The squiggly-brackets, {}, represent an empty dictionary. To add items to the dictionary, you can use
square brackets: >>> eng2sp['one'] = 'uno' This line creates an item that maps from the key 'one' to the value
'uno'. If we print the dictionary again, we see a key-value pair with a colon between the key and value:
This output format is also an input format. For example, you can create a new dictionary with three items:
The order of the key-value pairs is not the same. In fact, if you type the same example on your computer,
you might get a different result. In general, the order of items in a dictionary is unpredictable. But that’s not
a problem because the elements of a dictionary are never indexed with integer indices. Instead, you use the
keys to look up the corresponding values:
The key 'two' always maps to the value 'dos' so the order of the items doesn’t matter. If the key isn’t in the
dictionary, you get an exception:
The len function works on dictionaries; it returns the number of key-value pairs:
> len(eng2sp)
The in operator works on dictionaries; it tells you whether something appears as a key in the dictionary
(appearing as a value is not good enough).
To see whether something appears as a value in a dictionary, you can use the method values, which returns
the values as a list, and then use the in operator:
True
The in operator uses different algorithms for lists and dictionaries. For lists, it uses a search algorithm, as in
Section 8.6. As the list gets longer, the search time gets longer in direct proportion. For dictionaries, Python
uses an algorithm called a hashtable that has a remarkable property: the in operator takes about the same
amount of time no matter how many items there are in a dictionary
Dictionary operations
The del statement removes a key-value pair from a dictionary. For example, the following dictionary
contains the names of various fruits and the number of each fruit in stock:
> inventory = {’apples’: 430, ’bananas’: 312, ’oranges’: 525, ’pears’: 217}
> print inventory {’oranges’: 525, ’apples’: 430, ’pears’: 217, ’bananas’: 312}
If someone buys all of the pears, we can remove the entry from the dictionary:
Or if we’re expecting more pears soon, we might just change the value associated with pears:
> inventory[’pears’] = 0
> print inventory {’oranges’: 525, ’apples’: 430, ’pears’: 0, ’bananas’: 312}
The len function also works on dictionaries; it returns the number of key-value pairs:
> len(inventory) 4
8. DICTIONARY METHODS
A method is similar to a function—it takes arguments and returns a value— but the syntax is different. For
example, the keys method takes a dictionary and returns a list of the keys that appear, but instead of the
function syntax keys(eng2sp), we use the method syntax eng2sp.keys().
This form of dot notation specifies the name of the function, keys, and the name of the object to apply the
function to, eng2sp. The parentheses indicate that this method has no parameters. A method call is called an
invocation; in this case, we would say that we are invoking keys on the object eng2sp.
The values method is similar; it returns a list of the values in the dictionary:
The items method returns both, in the form of a list of tuples—one for each key-value pair:
>>> eng2sp.items() [(’one’,’uno’), (’three’, ’tres’), (’two’, ’dos’)]
The syntax provides useful type information. The square brackets indicate that this is a list. The parentheses
indicate that the elements of the list are tuples. If a method takes an argument, it uses the same syntax as a
function call. For example, the method has key takes a key and returns true (1) if the key appears in the
dictionary:
>>> eng2sp.has_key(’one’)
True
>>> eng2sp.has_key(’deux’)
False
If you try to call a method without specifying an object, you get an error. In this case, the error message is
not very helpful:
List comprehensions
List comprehensions provide a concise way to create lists. It consists of brackets containing an expression followed by a
for clause, then zero or more for or if clauses. The expressions can be anything, i.e., all kinds of objects can be in lists.
The result will be a new list resulting from evaluating the expression in the context of the for and if clauses which follow
it. The list comprehension always returns a result list.
Syntax
The list comprehension starts with a '[' and ']', to help you remember that the result is going to be a list.
if conditional:
expression
List comprehension is a method to describe the process using which the list should be created. To do that, the
list is broken into two pieces. The first is a picture of what each element will look like, and the second is what
is done to get it.
For instance, let's say we have a list of words:
listOfWords = ["this","is","a","list","of","words"]
To take the first letter of each word and make a list out of it using list comprehension:
List comprehension supports more than one for statement. It will evaluate the items in all of the objects
sequentially and will loop over the shorter objects if one object is longer than the rest.
List comprehension supports an if statement, to only include members into the list that fulfill a certain
condition:
SELECTION
SORT: PROGRAM:
least = i
for k in range( i + 1 , len( aList ) ):
def swap( A, x, y ):
tmp = A[x]
A[x] = A[y]
A[y] = tmp
aList = [54,26,93,17,77,31,44,55,20]
selectionsort(aList)
print(aList)
Insertion sort:
def insertionSort(alist):
currentvalue = alist[index]
position = index
alist[position]=alist[position-1]
position = position-1
alist[position]=currentvalue
alist = [54,26,93,17,77,31,44,55,20]
insertionSort(alist)
print(alist)
def mergeSort(alist):
print("Splitting ",alist)
if len(alist)>1:
mid = len(alist)//2
lefthalf = alist[:mid]
righthalf = alist[mid:]
mergeSort(lefthalf)
mergeSort(righthalf)
i=0
j=0
k=0
while i < len(lefthalf) and j < len(righthalf):
if lefthalf[i] < righthalf[j]:
alist[k]=lefthalf[i]
i=i+1
else:
alist[k]=righthalf[j]
j=j+1
k=k+1
j=j+1
k=k+1
print("Merging ",alist)
alist = [54,26,93,17,77,31,44,55,20]
mergeSort(alist)
print(alist)
Quicksort:
store_index = start
store_index += 1
return store_index
def quick_sort(lst, start, end):
def sort(lst):
quick_sort(lst, 0, len(lst) - 1)
return lst
print sort([345,45,89,569,23,67,56,90,100])
histogram([2, 3, 6, 5])
UNIT V
FILES, MODULES AND PACKAGES
PART- A (2 Marks)
A text file is a file that contains printable characters and whitespace, organized in
to lines separated by newline characters.
f.write("hello world")
f.close()
3. Write a python program that counts the number of words in a
file. f=open("test.txt","r")
content =f.readline(20)
words =content.split()
print(words)
The open function takes two arguments : name of the file and the mode of operation.
Example: f = open("test.dat","w")
A file object allows us to use, access and manipulate all the user accessible files. It maintains
the state about the file it has opened.
The name of the file, mode and the location of the object will be displayed.
7. What is an exception?
Whenever a runtime error occurs, it creates an exception. The program stops execution and
prints an error message. For example, dividing by zero creates an exception:
print 55/0
ZeroDivisionError: integer division or modulo
8. What are the error messages that are displayed for the following exceptions?
b. KeyError: what
The error message has two parts: the type of error before the colon, and speci_cs about
the error after the colon.
10. How do you handle the exception inside a program when you try to open a non-existent
file?
filename = raw_input('Enter a file name: ')
try:
f = open (filename, "r")
except IOError:
The try statement executes the statements in the first block. If no exception occurs, then except
statement is ignored. If an exception of type IOError occurs, it executes the statements in the
except branch and then continues.
12. What is the function of raise statement? What are its two arguments?
The raise statement is used to raise an exception when the program detects an error. It takes
two arguments: the exception type and specific information about the error.
The two methods used in pickling are pickle.dump() and pickle.load(). To store a data structure,
dump method is used and to load the data structures that are dumped , load method is used.
15. What is the use of the format operator?
The format operator % takes a format string and a tuple of expressions and yields a string
that includes the expressions, formatted according to the format string.
A module is simply a file that defines one or more related functions grouped together. To reuse
the functions of a given module, we need to import the module. Syntax: import <modulename>
Packages are namespaces that contain multiple packages and modules themselves. They are
simply directories.
18. What is the special file that each package in Python must contain?
Each package in Python must contain a special file called __init__.py
19. How do you delete a file in Python?
The remove() method is used to delete the files by supplying the name of the file to be deleted
as argument.
Syntax: os.remove(filename)
20. How do you use command line arguments to give input to the program?
Python sys module provides access to any command-line arguments via sys.argv. sys.argv is the
list of command-line arguments. len(sys.argv) is the number of command-line arguments.
f1 = open(oldFile, "r")
f2 = open(newFile, "w")
while True:
text = f1.read(50)
if text == "":
break
f2.write(text)
f1.close()
f2.close()
return
2. (a) Write a program to perform exception handling.
def exists(filename):
try:
f = open(filename)
f.close()
return True
except IOError:
return False
x = float(raw_input("Your number:
")) inverse = 1.0 / x
except ValueError:
except ZeroDivisionError:
print "Infinity"
3. Write a python program to count number of lines, words and characters in a text file.
def wordCount():
cl=0
cw=0
cc=0
f=open("ex88.txt","r")
for line in f:
words=line.split()
cl +=1
cw +=len(words)
cc +=len(line) print('No.
of lines:',cl) print('No. of
words:',cw) print('No. of
characters:',cc) f.close()
4. Write a Python program to illustrate the use of command-line
arguments. import sys
def inputCmd():
Syntax : import os
os.getcwd()
Syntax: os.chdir(‘C:\\Users’)
os.getcwd()
Syntax: os.listdir()
Syntax: os.mkdir(‘Newdir’)
Module definition:
def getStack():
return[]
def isempty(s):
if s==[]:
return
True else:
return
False def top(s):
if isempty(s):
return None
else:
return s[len(s)-
1] def push(s,item):
s.append(item)
def pop(s):
if isempty(s):
return None
else: item=s[len(s)-
1]
del s[len(s)-1]
return item
import stack
def today():
mystack=stack.getStack()
stack.push(mystack,item)
print('Pushing',item,'to stack')
item=stack.pop(mystack)
print('Poping',item,'from stack')
def test():
wordcount.wordCount()
def test2():
ex12.inputNumber()
def test3():
ex97.fun()
ex97.py:
def fun():
try:
x = float(raw_input("Your number:
")) inverse = 1.0 / x
except ValueError:
except ZeroDivisionError:
print "Infinity"
ex12.py:
def inputNumber () :
if x == 17 :
return x
wordcount.py:
def wordCount():
cl=0
cw=0
cc=0
f=open("ex88.txt","r")
for line in f:
words=line.split()
cl +=1
cw +=len(words)
cc +=len(line) print('No.
of lines:',cl) print('No. of
words:',cw) print('No. of
characters:',cc) f.close()
def funMap():
cities = ["Chennai",
"delhi","Mumbai","Kolkata"]
fh=open("cities.pck","w") pickle.dump(cities,fh)
fh.close()
f=open("cities.pck","r")
cts=pickle.load(f)
print(cts)