STRING

MANIPULATION,
GUESS-and-CHECK,
APPROXIMATIONS,
BISECTION
(download slides and .py files and
follow along!)
LECTURE 3

6.0001 LECTURE 3 1
 LAST
TIME
strings
 branching – if/elif/else
 while loops
 for loops

6.0001 LECTURE 3 2
 TOD
AY
string manipulation
 guess and check algorithms
 approximate solutions
 bisection method

6.0001 LECTURE 3 3
 STRIN
GS
think of as a sequence of case sensitive characters
 can compare strings with ==, >, < etc.
len() is a function used to retrieve the length of
the string in the parentheses

s = "abc"
len(s) evaluates to 3


6.0001 LECTURE 3 4
 STRIN
GS
square brackets used to perform indexing into a string
to get the value at a certain index/position
s = "abc"
index: 0 1 2  indexing always starts at 0
-3 -2 -1  last element always at index -1
index:
s[0]  evaluates to "a"
s[1]  evaluates to "b"
s[2]  evaluates to "c"
s[3]  trying to index out of bounds, error
s[-1]  evaluates to "c"
s[-2]  evaluates to "b"
s[-3]  evaluates to "a"
6.0001 LECTURE 3 5
 STRIN
GS
can slice strings using [start:stop:step]
 if give two numbers, [start:stop], step=1 by
default
 you can also omit numbers and leave just colons
s = "abcdefgh"
s[3:6]  evaluates to "def", same as s[3:6:1]

s[::] evaluatestoto"abcdefgh",
s[3:6:2] evaluates "df" same as s[0:len(s):1]
s[::-1]  evaluates to "hgfedbca", same as s[-1:-(len(s)+1):-1]
s[4:1:-2] evaluates to "ec"
6.0001 LECTURE 3 6
 STRIN
GS
strings are “immutable” – cannot be modified
s = "hello"
s[0] = 'y'  gives an error
s = 'y'+s[1:len(s)]  is allowed,
s bound to new object

"hello"

"yello"

6.0001 LECTURE 3 7
 for LOOPS
RECAP
for loops have a loop variable that iterates over a set
of values
for var in range(4):  var iterates over values
<expressions> 0,1,2,3
 expressions inside loop executed
with each value for var
for var in range(4,6):  var iterates over values 4,5
<expressions>

range is a way to iterate over numbers, but a for loop

variable can iterate over any set of values, not just numbers!

6.0001 LECTURE 3 8
 STRINGS AND
LOOPS
 these two code snippets do the same thing
bottom one is more “pythonic”
s = "abcdefgh"
for index in range(len(s)):
if s[index] == 'i' or s[index] == 'u':
print("There is an i or u")

for char in s:
if char == 'i' or char == 'u':
print("There is an i or u")

6.0001 LECTURE 3 9
CODE
ROBOT
EXAMPLE:
CHEERLEADERS
an_letters = "aefhilmnorsxAEFHILMNORSX"

word = input("I will cheer for you! Enter a word: ")

times = int(input("Enthusiasm level (1-10): "))

i = 0
while i < len(word): for char in word:
char = word[i]
if char in an_letters:
print("Give me an " + char + "! " + char)
else:
print("Give me a" + char + "! " + char)
i += 1
print("What does that
spell?") for i in
range(times):
print(word, "!!!")
6.0001 LECTURE 3 10
EXERCI
SE= "mit u rock"
s1
s2 = "i rule
mit"
if len(s1) == len(s2):
for char1 in s1:
for char2 in s2:
if char1 ==
char2:
print("common letter")
break
6.0001 LECTURE 3 11
 GUESS-AND-
CHECK
the process below also called exhaustive enumeration

 given a problem…
 you are able to guess a value for solution
 you are able to check if the solution is correct
 keep guessing until find solution or guessed all values

6.0001 LECTURE 3 12
 GUESS-AND-
–CHECK
cube
root
cube = 8
for guess in range(cube+1):
if guess**3 == cube:
print("Cube root of",
cube, "is", guess)

6.0001 LECTURE 3 13
 GUESS-AND-
–CHECK
cube
root
cube = 8
for guess in range(abs(cube)+1):
if guess**3 >= abs(cube):
break
if guess**3 != abs(cube):
print(cube, 'is not a perfect cube')
else:
if cube < 0:
guess = -guess
print('Cube root of '+str(cube)+' is '+str(guess))

6.0001 LECTURE 3 14
 APPROXIMATE
SOLUTIONS
good enough solution
 start with a guess and increment by some small value
 keep guessing if |guess3-cube| >= epsilon
for some small epsilon

 decreasing increment size  slower program

 increasing epsilon  less accurate answer

6.0001 LECTURE 3 15
APPROXIMATE
–SOLUTION
cube
root
cube = 27
epsilon = 0.01
guess = 0.0
increment = 0.0001
num_guesses = 0
while abs(guess**3 - cube) >= epsilon: and guess <= cube :
guess += increment
num_guesses += 1
print('num_guesses =', num_guesses)
if abs(guess**3 - cube) >=
epsilon:
print('Failed on cube root of', cube)
else:
print(guess, 'is close to the
cube root of', cube) 6.0001 LECTURE 3 16
 BISECTION
SEARCH
half interval each iteration
 new guess is halfway in between
 to illustrate, let’s play a game!

GUESS

GUESS

GUESS
6.0001 LECTURE 3 17
 BISECTION
–SEARCH
cube
root
cube = 27
epsilon = 0.01
num_guesses = 0
low = 0
high = cube
guess =
(high +
low)/2.0
while abs(guess**3 - cube) >= epsilon:
if guess**3 < cube :
low = guess
else:
high =
guess
guess = (high +
low)/2.0 num_guesses +=
6.0001 LECTURE 3 18
 BISECTION
SEARCH
CONVERGENC
search space
◦ first guess: N/2
E◦second guess: N/4
◦ kth guess: N/2k
 guess converges on the order of log2N steps
bisection search works when value of function varies
monotonically with input
 code as shown only works for positive cubes > 1 –
why?
 challenges  modify to work with negative cubes!
 modify to work with x < 1!

6.0001 LECTURE 3 19
 x<
1if x < 1, search space is 0 to x but cube root is greater
than x and less than 1
modify the code to choose the search space
depending on value of x

6.0001 LECTURE 3 20
MIT OpenCourseWare
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6.0001 Introduction to Computer Science and Programming in Python

Fall 2016

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