The current answers are good, but do not talk about how they are just syntactic sugar to some pattern that we are so used to.
Let's start with an example, say we have 10 numbers, and we want a subset of those that are greater than, say, 5.
>>> numbers = [12, 34, 1, 4, 4, 67, 37, 9, 0, 81]
For the above task, the below approaches below are totally identical to one another, and go from most verbose to concise, readable and pythonic:
Approach 1
result = []
for index in range(len(numbers)):
if numbers[index] > 5:
result.append(numbers[index])
print result #Prints [12, 34, 67, 37, 9, 81]
Approach 2 (Slightly cleaner, for-in loops)
result = []
for number in numbers:
if number > 5:
result.append(number)
print result #Prints [12, 34, 67, 37, 9, 81]
Approach 3 (Enter List Comprehension)
result = [number for number in numbers if number > 5]
or more generally:
[function(number) for number in numbers if condition(number)]
where:
function(x)takes anxand transforms it into something useful (like for instance:x*x)- if
condition(x)returns any False-y value (False, None, empty string, empty list, etc ..) then the current iteration will be skipped (thinkcontinue). If the function return a non-False-y value then the current value makes it to the final resultant array (and goes through the transformation step above).
To understand the syntax in a slightly different manner, look at the Bonus section below.
For further information, follow the tutorial all other answers have linked: List Comprehension
Bonus
(Slightly un-pythonic, but putting it here for sake of completeness)
The example above can be written as:
result = filter(lambda x: x > 5, numbers)
The general expression above can be written as:
result = map(function, filter(condition, numbers)) #result is a list in Py2
Answer from UltraInstinct on Stack OverflowPython for-in loop preceded by a variable - Stack Overflow
Need help understanding this while loop
Confused about for loops in Python. Please help me break down this code.
python - "for loop" with two variables? - Stack Overflow
Videos
The current answers are good, but do not talk about how they are just syntactic sugar to some pattern that we are so used to.
Let's start with an example, say we have 10 numbers, and we want a subset of those that are greater than, say, 5.
>>> numbers = [12, 34, 1, 4, 4, 67, 37, 9, 0, 81]
For the above task, the below approaches below are totally identical to one another, and go from most verbose to concise, readable and pythonic:
Approach 1
result = []
for index in range(len(numbers)):
if numbers[index] > 5:
result.append(numbers[index])
print result #Prints [12, 34, 67, 37, 9, 81]
Approach 2 (Slightly cleaner, for-in loops)
result = []
for number in numbers:
if number > 5:
result.append(number)
print result #Prints [12, 34, 67, 37, 9, 81]
Approach 3 (Enter List Comprehension)
result = [number for number in numbers if number > 5]
or more generally:
[function(number) for number in numbers if condition(number)]
where:
function(x)takes anxand transforms it into something useful (like for instance:x*x)- if
condition(x)returns any False-y value (False, None, empty string, empty list, etc ..) then the current iteration will be skipped (thinkcontinue). If the function return a non-False-y value then the current value makes it to the final resultant array (and goes through the transformation step above).
To understand the syntax in a slightly different manner, look at the Bonus section below.
For further information, follow the tutorial all other answers have linked: List Comprehension
Bonus
(Slightly un-pythonic, but putting it here for sake of completeness)
The example above can be written as:
result = filter(lambda x: x > 5, numbers)
The general expression above can be written as:
result = map(function, filter(condition, numbers)) #result is a list in Py2
It's a list comprehension
foo will be a filtered list of bar containing the objects with the attribute occupants > 1
bar can be a list, set, dict or any other iterable
Here is an example to clarify
>>> class Bar(object):
... def __init__(self, occupants):
... self.occupants = occupants
...
>>> bar=[Bar(0), Bar(1), Bar(2), Bar(3)]
>>> foo = [x for x in bar if x.occupants > 1]
>>> foo
[<__main__.Bar object at 0xb748516c>, <__main__.Bar object at 0xb748518c>]
So foo has 2 Bar objects, but how do we check which ones they are? Lets add a __repr__ method to Bar so it is more informative
>>> Bar.__repr__=lambda self:"Bar(occupants={0})".format(self.occupants)
>>> foo
[Bar(occupants=2), Bar(occupants=3)]
I am an absolute beginner in programming, so please forgive my utter lack of understanding.
I came across this concept quite recently through a course I am taking in Python. I re-watched the lessons, I have tried doing some separate research on this topic, but I am still having a hard time wrapping my head around it.
The project I am currently working on is a random password generator. I was stumped and couldn't figure it out on my own so I watched the teacher's solution as a last resort. Especially puzzled when she used this code:
password = ""
for char in password_list:
password += charFor context, this code is supposed to convert a list of characters (from password_list) into a string.
I thought that for loops were used for iteration. I am only familiar with using "for __ in __ range(a, b)" so far, so I was quite puzzled by this loop as I don't understand how it works. Could someone please help me break it down into simpler terms? That would be super appreciated.
Please and thank you.
If you want the effect of a nested for loop, use:
import itertools
for i, j in itertools.product(range(x), range(y)):
# Stuff...
If you just want to loop simultaneously, use:
for i, j in zip(range(x), range(y)):
# Stuff...
Note that if x and y are not the same length, zip will truncate to the shortest list. As @abarnert pointed out, if you don't want to truncate to the shortest list, you could use itertools.zip_longest.
UPDATE
Based on the request for "a function that will read lists "t1" and "t2" and return all elements that are identical", I don't think the OP wants zip or product. I think they want a set:
def equal_elements(t1, t2):
return list(set(t1).intersection(set(t2)))
# You could also do
# return list(set(t1) & set(t2))
The intersection method of a set will return all the elements common to it and another set (Note that if your lists contains other lists, you might want to convert the inner lists to tuples first so that they are hashable; otherwise the call to set will fail.). The list function then turns the set back into a list.
UPDATE 2
OR, the OP might want elements that are identical in the same position in the lists. In this case, zip would be most appropriate, and the fact that it truncates to the shortest list is what you would want (since it is impossible for there to be the same element at index 9 when one of the lists is only 5 elements long). If that is what you want, go with this:
def equal_elements(t1, t2):
return [x for x, y in zip(t1, t2) if x == y]
This will return a list containing only the elements that are the same and in the same position in the lists.
There's two possible questions here: how can you iterate over those variables simultaneously, or how can you loop over their combination.
Fortunately, there's simple answers to both. First case, you want to use zip.
x = [1, 2, 3]
y = [4, 5, 6]
for i, j in zip(x, y):
print(str(i) + " / " + str(j))
will output
1 / 4
2 / 5
3 / 6
Remember that you can put any iterable in zip, so you could just as easily write your exmple like:
for i, j in zip(range(x), range(y)):
# do work here.
Actually, just realised that won't work. It would only iterate until the smaller range ran out. In which case, it sounds like you want to iterate over the combination of loops.
In the other case, you just want a nested loop.
for i in x:
for j in y:
print(str(i) + " / " + str(j))
gives you
1 / 4
1 / 5
1 / 6
2 / 4
2 / 5
...
You can also do this as a list comprehension.
[str(i) + " / " + str(j) for i in range(x) for j in range(y)]
Try using this:
for k in range(1,c+1,2):
You should also know that in Python, iterating over integer indices is bad style, and also slower than the alternative. If you just want to look at each of the items in a list or dict, loop directly through the list or dict.
mylist = [1,2,3]
for item in mylist:
print item
mydict = {1:'one', 2:'two', 3:'three'}
for key in mydict:
print key, mydict[key]
This is actually faster than using the above code with range(), and removes the extraneous i variable.
If you need to edit items of a list in-place, then you do need the index, but there's still a better way:
for i, item in enumerate(mylist):
mylist[i] = item**2
Again, this is both faster and considered more readable. This one of the main shifts in thinking you need to make when coming from C++ to Python.