Python Lists

Show a max
loop with a list Chapter 8

Python for Informatics: Exploring Information

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Unless otherwise noted, the content of this course material is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.

Copyright 2010, 2011, Charles Severance

A List is a kind of Collection

• A collection allows us to put many values in a single “variable”

• A collection is nice because we can carry all many values around in

one convenient package.

friends = [ 'Joseph', 'Glenn', 'Sally' ]

carryon = [ 'socks', 'shirt', 'perfume' ]

 What is not a “Collection”
• Most of our variables have one value in them - when we put a new
value in the variable - the old value is over written

$ python
Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Feb 22 2008, 07:57:53)
[GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5363)] on darwin
>>> x = 2
>>> x = 4
>>> print x
4
 List Constants
• List constants are surrounded by >>> print [1, 24, 76]
[1, 24, 76]
square brakets and the elements
in the list are separated by >>> print ['red', 'yellow', 'blue']
commas. ['red', 'yellow', 'blue']
>>> print ['red', 24, 98.6]
• A list element can be any Python ['red', 24, 98.599999999999994]
object - even another list >>> print [ 1, [5, 6], 7]
[1, [5, 6], 7]
• A list can be empty >>> print []
[]
 We already use lists!

5
for i in [5, 4, 3, 2, 1] : 4
print i 3
2
print 'Blastoff!' 1
Blastoff!
Lists and definite loops - best pals

friends = ['Joseph', 'Glenn', 'Sally']

for friend in friends : Happy New Year: Joseph

print 'Happy New Year:', friend Happy New Year: Glenn
Happy New Year: Sally
print 'Done!' Done!
 Looking Inside Lists

• Just like strings, we can get at any single element in a list using an index
specified in square brackets

>>> friends = [ 'Joseph', 'Glenn', 'Sally' ]

Joseph Glenn Sally >>> print friends[1]
Glenn
0 1 2 >>>
Lists are Mutable >>> fruit = 'Bannna'
>>> fruit[0] = 'b'
Traceback
TypeError: 'str' object does not
• Strings are "immutable" - we support item assignment
>>> x = fruit.lower()
cannot change the contents of
a string - we must make a >>> print x
new string to make any bannna
change >>> lotto = [2, 14, 26, 41, 63]
>>> print lotto
• Lists are "mutable" - we can [2, 14, 26, 41, 63]
>>> lotto[2] = 28
change an element of a list
using the index operator >>> print lotto
[2, 14, 28, 41, 63]
 How Long is a List?
>>> greet = 'Hello Bob'
• The len() function takes a list as a >>> print len(greet)
9
parameter and returns the
number of elements in the list >>> x = [ 1, 2, 'joe', 99]
>>> print len(x)
• Actually len() tells us the number 4
of elements of any set or sequence >>>
(i.e. such as a string...)
 Using the range function
>>> print range(4)
• The range function returns a list [0, 1, 2, 3]
>>> friends = ['Joseph', 'Glenn', 'Sally']
of numbers that range from zero
to one less than the parameter >>> print len(friends)
3
• We can construct an index loop >>> print range(len(friends))
using for and an integer iterator [0, 1, 2]
>>>
 A tale of two loops...
>>> friends = ['Joseph', 'Glenn', 'Sally']
>>> print len(friends)
3
friends = ['Joseph', 'Glenn', 'Sally']
>>> print range(len(friends))
for friend in friends : [0, 1, 2]
>>>
print 'Happy New Year:', friend

for i in range(len(friends)) :
print 'Happy New Year:', friends[i] Happy New Year: Joseph
Happy New Year: Glenn
Happy New Year: Sally
 Concatenating lists using +

>>> a = [1, 2, 3]
>>> b = [4, 5, 6]
>>> c = a + b
• We can create a new list by adding
>>> print c
two exsiting lists together
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
>>> print a
[1, 2, 3]
 Lists can be sliced using :
>>> t = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f']
>>> t[1:3]
['b', 'c'] Remember: Just like in
>>> t[:4] strings, the second number
['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'] is "up to but not
>>> t[3:] including"
['d', 'e', 'f']
>>> t[:]
['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f']
 List Methods

>>> x = list()
>>> type(x)
<type 'list'>
>>> dir(x)
['append', 'count', 'extend', 'index', 'insert', 'pop', 'remove', 'reverse', 'sort']
>>>

http://docs.python.org/tutorial/datastructures.html
 Building a list from scratch

>>> stuff = list()

• We can create an empty >>> stuff.append('book')
list and then add elements >>> stuff.append('ipod')
using the append method >>> print stuff
['book', 'ipod']
• The list stays in order and
>>> stuff.append('cookie')
new elements are added at
the end of the list >>> print stuff
['book', 'ipod', 'cookie']
 Is Something in a List?
• Python provides two
>>> some = [1, 9, 21, 10, 16]
operators that let you
check if an item is in a list >>> 9 in some
True
• These are logical >>> 15 in some
operators that return True False
or False >>> 20 not in some
True
• They do not modify the >>>
list
 A List is an Ordered Sequence
• A list can hold many items
>>> friends = [ 'Joseph', 'Glenn', 'Sally' ]
and keeps those items in the
>>> friends.sort()
order until we do something
>>> print friends
to change the order
['Glenn', 'Joseph', 'Sally']
• A list can be sorted (i.e. >>> print friends[2]
Sally
change its order)
>>>
• The sort method (unlike in
strings) means "sort yourself"
 Built in Functions and Lists
>>> nums = [3, 41, 12, 9, 74, 15]
>>> print len(nums)
• There are a number of
6
functions built into Python
>>> print max(nums)
that take lists as
74
parameters
>>> print min(nums)
3
• Remember the loops we
>>> print sum(nums)
built? These are much
simpler 154
>>> print sum(nums)/len(nums)
25
http://docs.python.org/lib/built-in-funcs.html
total = 0 Enter a number: 3
count = 0 Enter a number: 9
while ( True ) : Enter a number: 5
inp = raw_input('Enter a number: ') Enter a number: done
if inp == 'done' : break Average: 5.66666666667
value = float(inp)
total = total + value
count = count + 1 numlist = list()
while ( True ) :
average = total / count inp = raw_input('Enter a number: ')
print 'Average:', average if inp == 'done' : break
value = float(inp)
numlist.append(value)
Averaging
average = sum(numlist) / len(numlist)
with a list print 'Average:', average
 Best Friends: Strings and Lists
>>> print stuff
>>> abc = 'With three words' ['With', 'three', 'words']
>>> stuff = abc.split() >>> for w in stuff :
>>> print stuff ... print w
['With', 'three', 'words'] ...
>>> print len(stuff) With
3 three
>>> print stuff[0] words
With >>>

Split breaks a string into parts produces a list of strings. We think of these as
words. We can access a particular word or loop through all the words.
>>> line = 'A lot of spaces'
>>> etc = line.split()
>>> print etc
['A', 'lot', 'of', 'spaces']
>>>
>>> line = 'first#second#third'
>>> thing = line.split() When you do not specify a
>>> print thing delimiter, multiple spaces are
['first#second#third'] treated like “one” delimiter.
>>> print len(thing)
1 You can specify what delimiter
>>> thing = line.split('#')
>>> print thing character to use in the splitting.
['first', 'second', 'third']
>>> print len(thing)
3
>>>
From [email protected] Sat Jan 5 09:14:16 2008

fhand = open('mbox-short.txt')
Sat
for line in fhand:
Fri
line = line.rstrip()
Fri
if not line.startswith('From ') : continue
Fri
words = line.split()
...
print words[2]

>>> line = 'From [email protected] Sat Jan 5 09:14:16 2008'

>>> words = line.split()
>>> print words
['From', '[email protected]', 'Sat', 'Jan', '5', '09:14:16', '2008']
>>>
 The Double Split
• Sometimes we split a line one way and then grab one of the pieces of
the line and split that piece again

From [email protected] Sat Jan 5 09:14:16 2008

words = line.split()
email = words[1]
pieces = email.split('@') ['stephen.marquard', 'uct.ac.za']
print pieces[1]
'uct.ac.za'
 The Double Split
• Sometimes we split a line one way and then grab one of the pieces of
the line and split that piece again

From [email protected] Sat Jan 5 09:14:16 2008

words = line.split() stephen.marquard uct.ac.za

[email protected]
email = words[1]
pieces = email.split('@') ['stephen.marquard', 'uct.ac.za']
print pieces[1]
'uct.ac.za'
 The Double Split
• Sometimes we split a line one way and then grab one of the pieces of
the line and split that piece again

From [email protected] Sat Jan 5 09:14:16 2008

words = line.split() [email protected]

email = words[1]
pieces = email.split('@') ['stephen.marquard', 'uct.ac.za'
'uct.ac.za']
print pieces[1]
 The Double Split
• Sometimes we split a line one way and then grab one of the pieces of
the line and split that piece again

From [email protected] Sat Jan 5 09:14:16 2008

words = line.split() [email protected]

email = words[1]
pieces = email.split('@') ['stephen.marquard', 'uct.ac.za']
print pieces[1]
'uct.ac.za'
 Mystery Problem...
From [email protected] Sat Jan 5 09:14:16 2008

fhand = open('mbox-short.txt')
for line in fhand: Sat
line = line.rstrip() Traceback (most recent call last):
words = line.split() File "search8.py", line 5, in <module>
if words[0] != 'From' : continue if words[0] != 'From' : continue
print words[2] IndexError: list index out of range
 List Summary
• Concept of a collection • List methods: append, remove
• Lists and definite loops • Sorting lists
• Indexing and lookup • Splitting strings into lists of
words
• List mutability
• Using split to parse strings
• Functions: len, min, max, sum
• Slicing lists