Computer Programming [108403]

Using Python

Data Structures (List, Sequence Iteration &

Loops )

Note:- some material of the course has been adopted from freely available public sources
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What is a Data Structure?
 Organizing, managing and storing data is important as it

enables easier access and efficient modifications.

 Data Structures allows you to organize your data in such

a way that enables you to store collections of data,

relate them and perform operations on them
accordingly.
 Each data structure provides a particular way of

organizing data so it can be accessed efficiently,

depending on your use case.
 Python comes with an extensive set of data structures

in its standard library.

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Types of Data Structures : Overview

Study and familiarize yourself with

these type of data structures

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List (indexing)
 Lists are used to store data of different data types
in a sequential manner.
 There are addresses assigned to every element of
the list, which is called as Index.
 The index value starts from 0 and goes on until
the last element.

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List (creation & modification)
 List can contain data of different datatypes
 A list of string, a float, an integer, and another list

 Lists Are Mutable

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List Operations

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List Operations

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Membership operator (in)
 Determines whether a given value is present in a sequence such
as a string, array, list, or tuple.
 Returns True if value is present otherwise return False.

Identity operator (is) ?

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List Arguments & Aliasing

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 Alias: Example
• Execute the following: • Execute the following:
>>> x = [5, 6, 5, 9, 10] >>> x = [5, 6, 5, 9, 10]
>>> y = x[:] >>> y = x
>>> y[1] = 7 >>> y[1] = 7
• What is x[1]? • What is x[1]?
A: 7 A: 7
B: 5 B: 5
C: 6 C: 6
D: ERROR D: ERROR
E: I don’t know E: I don’t know
 Comparison of String & List

String List

• s = 'abc d' • x = [5, 6, 5, 9, 15, 23]

0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 5
a b c d 5 6 5 9 15 23

• Put characters in quotes • Put values inside [ ]

 Use \' for quote character  Separate by commas
• Access characters with • Access values with []
[] s[0] is 'a'  x[0] is 5
 s[5] causes an error  x[6] causes an error
 s[0:2] is 'ab'  x[0:2] is [5, 6]
 s[2:] is 'c d'  x[3:] is [9, 15, 23]
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Iterating Through a string/List

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 String Formatting
F-string Method:

>>n = ‘good’
>>print(f“Its always {n} to learn.")

Output:
Its always good to learn.

>>a = "Islamabad"
>>print(f"""Avionics Engineering
>>Institute of space Technology,
>>{a}.""")

Output:
Lists Methods
x = [5, 6, 5, 9, 15, 23]

• <list>.index(<value>)
 Return position of the value
 ERROR if value is not there
 x.index(9) evaluates to 3
• <list>.count(<value>)
 Returns number of times value appears in list
 x.count(5) evaluates to 2
 Things that Work for All Sequences

s = ‘slithy’ x = [5, 6, 9, 6, 15, 5]

s.index(‘s’) → 0 methods x.index(5) → 0
s.count(‘t’) → 1 x.count(6) → 2
len(s) → 6 built-in fn. len(x) → 6
s[4] → “h” x[4] → 15
s[1:3] → “li” slicing x[1:3] → [6, 9]
s[3:] → “thy” x[3:] → [6, 15, 5]
s[–2] → “h” x[–2] → 15
s + ‘ toves’ x + [1, 2]
operators

→ “slithy toves” → [5, 6, 9, 6, 15, 5, 1, 2]

s*2 x*2
→ “slithyslithy” → [5, 6, 9, 6, 15, 5, 5, 6, 9, 6, 15, 5]
 List Assignment
• Format: • x = [5, 7,4,-2]
0 1 2
<var>[<index>] = <value> 3
5
7 4 -2
 Reassign at index
 Affects folder contents • x[1] = 8
 Variable is unchanged
id1
0 5
x id1 1 7
2 4
3 -2
 List Assignment
• Format: • x = [5, 7,4,-2]
0 1 2
<var>[<index>] = <value> 3
5 X7 4 -2
 Reassign at index
8
 Affects contents • x[1] = 8
 Variable is unchanged
• Strings cannot do this
0 5
 s = 'Hello World!' 1 x7 8
 s[0] = 'J' ERROR 2 4
3 -2
 String are immutable
 Lists and Expressions
• List brackets [] can • Execute the following:
contain expressions >>> a = 5
• This is a list >>> b = 7
expression >>> x = [a, b, a+b]
 Python must • What is x[2]?
evaluate it >>> 12
 Evaluates each
expression
 Puts the value in
the list
• Example:
>>> a =
[1+2,3+4,5+6]
 List Methods Can Alter the List

x = [5, 6, 5, 9]
• <list>.append(<value>)
 Adds a new value to the end of list
 x.append(-1) changes the list to [5, 6, 5, 9, -1]
• <list>.insert(<index>,<value>)
 Puts value into list at specified index; shifts rest
of list right
 x.insert(2,-1) changes the list to [5, 6, -1, 5, 9]
• <list>.sort()
 List insert method Example
• Execute the following:
>>> x = [5, 6, 5, 9, 10]
>>> x[3] = -1
>>> x.insert(1, 2)
• What is x[4]?

A: 10
B: 9
C: -1
D: ERROR
E: I don’t know
 Lists and Functions: Swap
def swap(b, h, k):
"""Procedure swaps b[h] and b[k] in b
Precondition: b is a mutable list, h
and k are valid positions in the list""”
1 temp= b[h]
2 b[h]= b[k]
3 b[k]= temp 0 5
What gets printed? 1 4
A: 5 2 7
x = [5,4,7,6,5] B: 6 3 6
swap(x, 3, 4) C: Something else 4 5
print x[3] D: I don’t know
 Operations on Strings
text.split(<sep>): return a list <sep>.join(words):
of the words in text (separated concatenate the items in the
by , or whitespace by default) list of strings words,
separated by <sep>.
text = 'A sentence is just\na list of words'
words = text.split() [‘A’, ‘sentence’, ‘is’, ‘just’, ‘a’, …]
returns a list of lines = text.split('\n')
two strings ‘A-sentence-is-just-a…’
print('-'.join(words))
 The Map Function
• To process a list, you often want to do the same thing to
each item in the list. One way to do this:
 The map function: Call the function once for each
item in the list, with the list
map(⟨function⟩, ⟨list⟩) item as the argument, and put
the return values into a list.
 The Map Function
• map(⟨function⟩, ⟨list⟩)
 Function must have map(f, x)
exactly 1 parameter
 Otherwise, get an
error
[f(x[0]), f(x[1]), …, f(x[n–1])]
 Returns a new list

calls the function f

once for each
item
map(len, ['a', 'bc', 'defg'])
Returns object which can be
converted to a list [1, 2, 4]
 Beware of Infinite Looping

b = [1, 2, 3]
for a in b: A: never prints b CORRECT*
b.append(a) B: [1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3]
C: [1, 2, 3]
INFINITE D: I do not know
LOOP!

print b * Runs out of memory eventually,

then probably throws an error.
Working with Lists: For Loops and Conditionals

def num_ints(thelist):
"""Returns: the number of ints in the list
Precondition: thelist is a list of any mix of types"""
result = 0
for x in thelist:
if type(x) == int:
result = result+1 Body
return result
Working with Lists: For Loops and Conditionals

def add_one(thelist):
"""(Procedure) Adds 1 to every element in thelist
Precondition: thelist is a list of all numbers
(either floats or ints)"""
for x in thelist: What gets printed?
x = x+1 A: [5, 4, 7]
B: [5, 4, 7, 5, 4, 7]
>>> a = [5, 4, 7] C: [6, 5, 8]
>>> add_one(a) D: Error
E: I don’t know
>>> a
Working with Lists: For Loops and Conditionals

def copy_add_one(thelist):
"""Returns: copy with 1 added to every element
Precondition: thelist is a list of all numbers
(either floats or ints)"""
mycopy = [] # accumulator
for x in thelist:
x = x+1
A: [5, 4, 7]
mycopy.append(x)
B: [5, 4, 7, 5, 4, 7]
C: [6, 5, 8]
>>>return
a = [5, 4,mycopy
7]
D: Error
>>> b=copy_add_one(a)
E: I don’t know
>>> b
Working with Lists: For Loops and Conditionals

def add_one(thelist):
"""(Procedure) Adds 1 to every element in the list
Precondition: thelist is a list of all numbers
(either floats or ints)"""
size = len(thelist)
This Also
for k in range(size): WORKS!
thelist[k] = thelist[k]+1
# procedure; no return The list is
mutable!
Working with Lists: For Loops and Conditionals
 Some List Functions/Methods

 len
 max
 min
 list.append()
 list.insert()
 list.remove()
 list.extend()
 list.pop()
 list.count()
 list.index()
 list.sort()

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 Class Task - 1

a = [99,-43,22,-112,-55,0,-20,55,99,-22]

Split the list a into middle and store the elements in two
different lists as following: (use for loop)

b = [99,-43,22,-112,-55]
c = [0,-20,55,99,-22]

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 Class Task - 2

a = [99,-43,22,-112,-55,0,-20,55,99,-22]

Find Minimum Element in the list a w/o using any

function/method.

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