Chapter 1

Strings

After studying this lesson, students will be able to:

 Learn how Python inputs strings
 Understand how Python stores and uses strings
 Perform slicing operations on strings
 Traverse strings with a loop
 Compare strings and substrings
 Understand the concept of immutable strings
 Understanding string functions.
 Understanding string constants

Introduction
In python, consecutive sequence of characters is known as a string. An individual
character in a string is accessed using a subscript (index). The subscript should always
be an integer (positive or negative). A subscript starts from 0.

Example

# Declaring a string in python

>>>myfirst=“Save Earth”

>>>print myfirst

Save Earth

Let’s play with subscripts

To access the first character of the string

>>>print myfirst[0]

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To access the fourth character of the string

>>>print myfirst[3]

To access the last character of the string

>>>print myfirst[-1]

>>h

To access the third last character of the string

>>>print myfirst[-3]

Consider the given figure

String A H E L L O

Positive Index 0 1 2 3 4

Negative Index -5 -4 -3 -2 -1

Important points about accessing elements in the strings using subscripts

 Positive subscript helps in accessing the string from the beginning

 Negative subscript helps in accessing the string from the end.

 Subscript 0 or –ve n(where n is length of the string) displays the first element.

Example : A[0] or A[-5] will display „H‟

 Subscript 1 or –ve (n-1) displays the second element.

Note: Python does not support character data type. A string of size 1 can be treated as
characters.

169
Creating and initializing strings
A literal/constant value to a string can be assigned using a single quotes, double quotes
or triple quotes.

 Enclosing the string in single quotes

Example

>>>print („A friend in need is a friend indeed‟)

A friend in need is a friend indeed

Example

>>>print(„ This book belongs to Raghav\’s sister‟)

This book belongs to Raghav‟s sister

As shown in example 2, to include the single quote within the string it should be
preceded by a backslash.

 Enclosing the string in double quotes

Example

>>>print(“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”)

A room without books is like a body without a soul.

 Enclosing the string in triple quote

Example

>>>life=”””\” Live as if you were to die tomorrow.

Learn as if you were to live forever.\”

---- Mahatma Gandhi “””

>>> print life

” Live as if you were to die tomorrow.

Learn as if you were to live forever.”

---- Mahatma Gandhi “””

Triple quotes are used when the text is multiline.

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 In the above example, backslash (\) is used as an escape sequence. An escape
sequences is nothing but a special character that has a specific function. As shown
above, backslash (\) is used to escape the double quote.

Escape sequence Meaning Example

\n New line >>> print “Hot\nCold”

Hot
Cold

Tab space >>>print “Hot\tCold”

Hot
Cold

 By invoking raw_input() method

Let‟s understand the working of raw input() function

Example

>>>raw_input()

Right to education

„Right to education‟

As soon as the interpreter encounters raw_input method, it waits for the user to
key in the input from a standard input device (keyboard) and press Enter key. The
input is converted to a string and displayed on the screen.

Note: raw_input( ) method has been already discussed in previous chapter in detail.

 By invoking input() method

Example

>>>str=input("Enter the string")

Enter the string hello

NameError: name 'hello' is not defined

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 Python interpreter was not able associate appropriate data type with the entered
data. So a NameError is shown. The error can be rectified by enclosing the given
input i.e. hello in quotes as shown below

>>>str=input("Enter the String") >>>str=input("Enter the String")

Enter the String "hello" Enter the String'hello'
>>> print str >>> print str
Hello hello

Strings are immutable

Strings are immutable means that the contents of the string cannot be changed after it is
created.

Let us understand the concept of immutability with help of an example.

Example

>>>str='honesty'

>>>str[2]='p'

TypeError: 'str' object does not support item assignment

Python does not allowthe programmer to change a character in a string. As shown in

the above example, str has the value „honesty‟. An attempt to replace „n‟ in the string by
‟p‟ displays a TypeError.

Traversing a string
Traversing a string means accessing all the elements of the string one after the other by
using the subscript. A string can be traversed using: for loop or while loop.

String traversal using for loop String traversal using while loop

A=‟Welcome‟ A=‟Welcome‟
>>>for i in A: >>>i=0
print i >>>while i<len(A)
W print A[i]

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e i=i+1
l W
c e
o l
m c
e o
m
e

A is assigned a string literal ‟Welcome‟. A is assigned a string literal „Welcome‟

On execution of the for loop, the i is assigned value 0
characters in the string are printed till the The len() function calculates the length of
end of the string is not reached. the string. On entering the while loop, the
interpreter checks the condition. If the
condition is true, it enters the loop. The
first character in the string is displayed.
The value i is incremented by 1. The loop
continues till value i is less than len-1.
The loop finishes as soon as the value of I
becomes equal to len-1, the loop

Strings Operations

Operator Description Example

+ (Concatenation) The + operator joins the >>> „Save‟+‟Earth‟

text on both sides of the „Save Earth‟
operator
To give a white space between the
two words, insert a space before
the closing single quote of the first
literal.

* (Repetition ) The * operator repeats the >>>3*‟Save Earth ‟

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 string on the left hand side „Save Earth Save Earth Save Earth
times the value on right ‟
hand side.

in (Membership) The operator displays 1 if >>>A=‟Save Earth‟

the string contains the >>> „S‟ in A
given character or the
sequence of characters. True
>>>‟Save‟ in A
True
>>‟SE‟ in A
False

not in The operator displays 1 if >>>‟SE‟ not in „Save Earth‟

the string does not contain True
the given character or the
sequence of characters. >>>‟Save „ not in „Save Earth‟
(working of this operator False
is the reverse of in
operator discussed above)

range (start, stop[, This function is already

step]) discussed in previous
chapter.

Slice[n:m] The Slice[n : m] operator >>>A=‟Save Earth‟

extracts sub parts from the >>> print A[1:3]
strings.
av
The print statement prints the
substring starting from subscript 1
and ending at subscript 3 but not
including subscript 3

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More on string Slicing
Consider the given figure

String A S A V E E A R T H

Positive Index 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Negative Index -10 -9 -9 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1

Let‟s understand Slicing in strings with the help of few examples.

Example

>>>A=‟Save Earth‟

>>> print A[1:3]

av

The print statement prints the substring starting from subscript 1 and ending at
subscript 3 .

Example

>>>print A[3:]

„e Earth‟

Omitting the second index, directs the python interpreter to extract the substring till the
end of the string

Example

>>>print A[:3]

Sav

Omitting the first index, directs the python interpreter to extract the substring before
the second index starting from the beginning.

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Example

>>>print A[:]

„Save Earth‟

Omitting both the indices, directs the python interpreter to extract the entire string
starting from 0 till the last index

Example

>>>print A[-2:]

„th‟

For negative indices the python interpreter counts from the right side (also shown
above). So the last two letters are printed.

Example

>>>Print A[:-2]

„Save Ear‟

Omitting the first index, directs the python interpreter to start extracting the substring
form the beginning. Since the negative index indicates slicing from the end of the string.
So the entire string except the last two letters is printed.

Note: Comparing strings using relational operators has already been discussed in the
previous chapter

String methods & built in functions

Syntax Description Example

len() Returns the length of the >>>A=‟Save Earth‟

string. >>> print len(A)
>>>10

capitalize() Returns the exact copy of the >>>str=‟welcome‟

string with the first letter in

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 upper case >>>print str.capitalize()
Welcome

find(sub[, The function is used to search >>>str='mammals'

start[, end]]) the first occurrence of the >>>str.find('ma')
substring in the given string. It
0
returns the index at which the
substring starts. It returns -1 if On omitting the start parameters,
the substring does occur in the the function starts the search from
string. the beginning.
>>>str.find('ma',2)
3
>>>str.find('ma',2,4)
-1
Displays -1 because the substring
could not be found between the
index 2 and 4-1
>>>str.find('ma',2,5)
3

isalnum() Returns True if the string >>>str='Save Earth'

contains only letters and digit. >>>str.isalnum()
It returns False ,If the string
False
contains any special character
like _ , @,#,* etc. The function returns False as space
is an alphanumeric character.
>>>'Save1Earth'.isalnum()
True

isalpha() Returns True if the string >>> 'Click123'.isalpha()

contains only letters. False
Otherwise return False.
>>> 'python'.isalpha()
True

isdigit() Returns True if the string >>>print str.isdigit()

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 contains only numbers. false
Otherwise it returns False.

lower() Returns the exact copy of the >>>print str.lower()

string with all the letters in „save earth‟
lowercase.

islower() Returns True if the string is in >>>print str.islower()

lowercase. True

isupper() Returns True if the string is in >>>print str.isupper()

uppercase. False

upper() Returns the exact copy of the >>>print str.upper()

string with all letters in WELCOME
uppercase.

lstrip() Returns the string after >>> print str

removing the space(s) on the Save Earth
left of the string.
>>>str.lstrip()
'Save Earth'
>>>str='Teach India Movement'
>>> print str.lstrip("T")
each India Movement
>>> print str.lstrip("Te")
ach India Movement
>>> print str.lstrip("Pt")
Teach India Movement
If a string is passed as argument to
the lstrip() function, it removes
those characters from the left of
the string.

rstrip() Returns the string after >>>str='Teach India Movement‟

removing the space(s) on the >>> print str.rstrip()

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 right of the string. Teach India Movement

isspace() Returns True if the string >>> str=' '

contains only white spaces and >>> print str.isspace()
False even if it contains one
True
character.
>>> str='p'
>>> print str.isspace()
False

istitle() Returns True if the string is >>> str='The Green Revolution'

title cased. Otherwise returns >>> str.istitle()
False
True
>>> str='The green revolution'
>>> str.istitle()
False

replace(old, The function replaces all the >>>str=‟hello‟

new) occurrences of the old string >>> print str.replace('l','%')
with the new string
He%%o
>>> print str.replace('l','%%')
he%%%%o

join () Returns a string in which the >>> str1=('jan', 'feb' ,'mar')

string elements have been >>>str=‟&”
joined by a separator.
>>> str.join(str1)
'jan&feb&mar'

swapcase() Returns the string with case >>> str='UPPER'

changes >>> print str.swapcase()
upper
>>> str='lower'
>>> print str.swapcase()

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 LOWER

partition(sep) The function partitions the >>> str='The Green Revolution'

strings at the first occurrence >>> str.partition('Rev')
of separator, and returns the
('The Green ', 'Rev', 'olution')
strings partition in three parts
i.e. before the separator, the >>> str.partition('pe')
separator itself, and the part ('The Green Revolution', '', '')
after the separator. If the
>>> str.partition('e')
separator is not found, returns
the string itself, followed by ('Th', 'e', ' Green Revolution')
two empty strings

split([sep[, The function splits the string >>>str='The$earth$is$what$we$all

maxsplit]]) into substrings using the $have$in$common.'
separator. The second >>> str.split($,3)
argument is optional and its
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
default value is zero. If an
integer value N is given for the >>> str.split('$',3)
second argument, the string is ['The', 'earth', 'is',
split in N+1 strings. 'what$we$all$have$in$common.']
>>> str.split('$')
['The', 'earth', 'is', 'what', 'we', 'all',
'have', 'in', 'common.']
>>> str.split('e')
['Th', ' Gr', '', 'n R', 'volution']
>>> str.split('e',2)
['Th', ' Gr', 'en Revolution']

Note: In the table given above, len( ) is a built in function and so we don‟t need
import the string module. For all other functions import string statement is required
for their successful execution.

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Let‟s discuss some interesting strings constants defined in string module:

string.ascii_uppercase

The command displays a string containing uppercase characters.

Example

>>> string.ascii_uppercase

'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ'

string.ascii_lowercase

The command displays a string containing all lowercase characters.

Example

>>> string.ascii_lowercase

'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'

string.ascii_letters

The command displays a string containing both uppercase and lowercase characters.

>>> string.ascii_letters

'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ'

string.digits

The command displays a string containing digits.

>>> string.digits

'0123456789'

string.hexdigits

The command displays a string containing hexadecimal characters.

>>> string.hexdigits

'0123456789abcdefABCDEF'

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string.octdigits

The command displays a string containing octal characters.

>>> string.octdigits

'01234567'

string.punctuations

The command displays a string containing all the punctuation characters.

>>> string.punctuations

'!"#$%&\'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\\]^_`{|}-'

string.whitespace

The command displays a string containing all ASCII characters that are considered
whitespace. This includes the characters space, tab, linefeed, return, formfeed, and
vertical tab.

>>> string.whitespace

'\t\n\x0b\x0c\r '

string.printable

The command displays a string containing all characters which are considered printable
like letters, digits, punctuations and whitespaces.

>>> string.printable

'0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ!
"#$%&\'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\\]^_`{|}- \t\n\r\x0b\x0c'

Note: Import string module to get the desired results with the commands mentioned
above.

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Programs using string functions and operators

1. Program to check whether the string is a palindrome or not.

defpalin():

str=input("Enter the String")

l=len(str)

p=l-1

index=0

while (index<p):

if(str[index]==str[p]):

index=index+1

p=p-1

else:

print "String is not a palidrome"

break

else:

print "String is a Palidrome"

2. Program to count no of ‘p’ in the string pineapple.

def lettercount():

word = 'pineapple'

count = 0

for letter in word:

if letter == 'p':

count = count + 1

print(count)

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Regular expressions and Pattern matching
A regular expression is a sequence of letters and some special characters (also called
meta characters). These special characters have symbolic meaning. The sequence
formed by using meta characters and letters can be used to represent a group of
patterns.

Let‟s start by understanding some meta characters.

For example

str= “Ram$”

The pattern “Ram$” is known as a regular expression. The expression has the meta
character „$‟. Meta character „$‟ is used to match the given regular expression at the end
of the string. So the regular expression would match the string „SitaRam‟ or „HeyRam‟
but will not match the string „Raman‟.

Consider the following codes:

def find(): def find():

import re import re

string1='SitaRam' string1='SitaRam'
if if re.search('Sita$',string1):
re.search('Ram$',string1): print "String Found"
print "String Found" else :
else : print" No Match"
print" No Match" Output
Output: No Match
String Found

As shown in the above examples, Regular expressions can be used in python for
matching a particular pattern by importing the re module.

Note: re module includes functions for working on regular expression.

184
Now let‟s learn how the meta characters are used to form regular expressions.

S.No Meta Usage Example

character

1 [] Used to match a set of characters. [ram]

The regular expression
would match any of the
characters r, a, or m.
[a-z]
The regular expression
would match only
lowercase characters.

2 ^ Used to complementing a set of [^ram]

characters The regular expression
would match any other
characters than
r, a or m.

3 $ Used to match the end of string Ram$

only The regular expression
would match Ram in
SitaRam but will not match
Ram in Raman

4 * Used to specify that the previous wate*r

character can be matched zero or The regular expression
more times. would match strings like
watr, wateer, wateeer and
so on.

5 + Used to specify that the previous wate+r

character can be matched one or The regular expression
more times. would match strings like
water, wateer, wateeer and
so on.

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 6 ? Used to specify that the previous wate?r
character can be matched either The regular expression
once or zero times would only match strings
like watr or water

7 {} The curly brackets accept two wate{1,4}r

integer value s. The first value The regular expression
specifies the minimum no of would match only strings
occurrences and second value water, wateer, wateeer or
specifies the maximum of wateeeer
occurrences

Let‟s learn about few functions from re module

re.compile()
The re.compile( ) function will compile the pattern into pattern objects. After the
compilation the pattern objects will be able to access methods for various operations
like searching and subsitutions

Example

import re

p=re.compile(„hell*o‟)

re.match()
The match function is used to determine if the regular expression (RE) matches at the
beginning of the string.

re.group()

The group function is used to return the string matched the RE

Example

>>>P=re.compile(„hell*o‟)

>>>m=re.match(„hell*o‟, „ hellooooo world‟)

>>>m.group()

„hello‟

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re.start()

The start function returns the starting position of the match.

re.end()

The end function returns the end position of the match.

re.span()

The span function returns the tuple containing the (start, end) positions of the match

Example

>>> import re

>>> P=re.compile('hell*o')

>>> m=re.match('hell*o', 'hellooooo world')

>>> m.start()

>>> m.end()

>>> m.span()

(0, 5)

re.search()
The search function traverses through the string and determines the position where the
RE matches the string

Example

>>> m=re.search('hell*o', 'favorite words hellooooo world')

>>> m.start()

15

>>> m.end()

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 20

>>> m.group()

'hello'

>>> m.span()

(15, 20)

Re.findall()
The function determines all substrings where the RE matches, and returns them as a list.

Example

>>> m=re.findall('hell*o', 'hello my favorite words hellooooo world')

>>> m

['hello', 'hello']

re.finditer()

The function determines all substrings where the RE matches, and returns them as an
iterator.

Example

>>> m=re.finditer('hell*o', 'hello my favorite words hellooooo world')

>>> m

<callable-iterator object at 0x0000000002E4ACF8>

>>> for match in m:

print match.span()

(0, 5)

(24, 29)

As shown in the above example, m is a iterator. So m is used in the for loop.

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Script 1: Write a script to determine if the given substring is present in the string.

def search_string():
import re
substring='water'
search1=re.search(substring,'Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink')
if search1:
position=search1.start()
print "matched", substring, "at position", position
else:
print "No match found"

Script 2: Write a script to determine if the given substring (defined using meta
characters) is present in the given string

def metasearch():
import re
p=re.compile('sing+')
search1=re.search(p,'Some singers sing well')
if search1:
match=search1.group()
index=search1.start()
lindex=search1.end()
print "matched", match, "at index", index ,"ending at" ,lindex
else:
print "No match found"

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 EXERCISE

1. Input a string “Green Revolution”. Write a script to print the string in reverse.

2. Input the string “Success”. Write a script of check if the string is a palindrome or
not

3. Input the string “Successor”. Write a script to split the string at every occurrence of
the letter s.

4. Input the string “Successor”. Write a script to partition the string at the occurrence
of the letter s. Also Explain the difference between the function split( ) and
partition().

5. Write a program to print the pyramid.

22

333

4444

55555

6. What will be the output of the following statement? Also justify for answer.

>>> print 'I like Gita\'s pink colour dress'.

7. Give the output of the following statements

>>> str='Honesty is the best policy'

>>> str.replace('o','*')

8. Give the output of the following statements

>>> str='Hello World'

>>>str.istiltle()

9. Give the output of the following statements.

>>> str="Group Discussion"

>>> print str.lstrip("Gro")

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10. Write a program to print alternate characters in a string. Input a string of your own
choice.

11. Input a string „Python‟. Write a program to print all the letters except the letter‟y‟.

12. Consider the string str=”Global Warming”

Write statements in python to implement the following

a) To display the last four characters.

b) To display the substring starting from index 4 and ending at index 8.

c) To check whether string has alphanumeric characters or not.

d) To trim the last four characters from the string.

e) To trim the first four characters from the string.

f) To display the starting index for the substring „Wa‟.

g) To change the case of the given string.

h) To check if the string is in title case.

i) To replace all the occurrences of letter „a‟ in the string with „*‟

13. Study the given script

def metasearch():

import re

p=re.compile('sing+')

search1=re.search(p,'Some singers sing well')

if search1:

match=search1.group()

index=search1.start()

lindex=search1.end()

print "matched", match, "at index", index ,"ending at", lindex

else:

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 print "No match found"

What will be the output of the above script if search() from the re module is
replaced by match () of the re module. Justify your answer

14. What will be the output of the script mentioned below? Justify your answer.

def find():

import re

p=re.compile('sing+')

search1=p.findall('Some singer sing well')

print search1

15. Rectify the error (if any) in the given statements.

>>> str="Hello World"

>>> str[5]='p'

192
 Chapter 2
Lists

After studying this lesson, students will be able to:

 Understand the concept of mutable sequence types in Python.
 Appreciate the use of list to conveniently store a large amount of data in memory.
 Create, access & manipulate list objects
 Use various functions & methods to work with list
 Appreciate the use of index for accessing an element from a sequence.

Introduction
Like a String, list also is sequence data type. It is an ordered set of values enclosed in
square brackets []. Values in the list can be modified, i.e. it is mutable. As it is set of
values, we can use index in square brackets [] to identify a value belonging to it. The
values that make up a list are called its elements, and they can be of any type.

We can also say that list data type is a container that holds a number of elements in a
given order. For accessing an element of the list, indexing is used.

Its syntax is:

Variable name [index] (variable name is name of the list).

It will provide the value at „index+1‟ in the list. Index here, has to be an integer value-
which can be positive or negative. Positive value of index means counting forward from
beginning of the list and negative value means counting backward from end of the list.
Remember the result of indexing a list is the value of type accessed from the list.

Index value Element of the list

0, -size 1st

1, -size +1 2nd

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 2, -size +2 3rd

.
.
.

size -2, -2 2nd last

size -1, -1 last

Please note that in the above example size is the total number of elements in the list.

Let‟s look at some example of simple list:

i) >>>L1 = [1, 2, 3, 4] # list of 4 integer elements.

ii) >>>L2 = [“Delhi”, “Chennai”, “Mumbai”] #list of 3 string elements.

iii) >>>L3 = [ ] # empty list i.e. list with no element

iv) >>>L4 = [“abc”, 10, 20] # list with different types of elements

v) >>>L5 = [1, 2, [6, 7, 8], 3] # A list containing another list known as

nested list

You will study about Nested lists in later parts of the chapter.

To change the value of element of list, we access the element & assign the new value.

Example

>>>print L1 # let‟s get the values of list before change

>>> L1 [2] = 5

>>> print L1 # modified list

[1, 2, 5, 4]

Here, 3rd element of the list (accessed using index value 2) is given a new value, so
instead of 3 it will be 5.

State diagram for the list looks like:

194
L1 0 1 L2 0 Delhi L3

1 2 1 Chennai

2 3 2 Mumbai
3 4

Note: List index works the same way as String index, which is:
 An integer value/expression can be used as index.
 An Index Error appears, if you try and access element that does not exist in the
list.
 An index can have a negative value, in that case counting happens from the end
of the list.

Creating a list
List can be created in many ways:

i) By enclosing elements in [ ], as we have done in above examples.

ii) Using other Lists

Example

L5=L1 [:]

Here L5 is created as a copy of L1.

>>>print L5

L6 = L1 [0:2]

>>>print L6

will create L6 having first two elements of L1.

iii) List comprehension

Example

>>>n = 5

195
 >>>l = range(n)

>>>print l

[0, 1, 2, 3, 4]

Example

>>> S= [x**2 for x in range (10)]

>>> print S

[0, 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81]

In mathematical terms, S can be defined as S = {x2 for: x in (0.....9)}. So, we can say
that list comprehension is short-hand for creating list.

Example

>>> A = [3, 4, 5]

>>> B = [value *3 for value in A]

Here B will be created with the help of A and its each element will be thrice of
element of A.

>>> print B

[9, 12, 15]

Comprehensions are functionally equivalent to wrting as:

>>>B = [ ]

>>>for i in A

B. append (i*3)

Similarly, other comprehensions can be expended.

Example

>>> print B

[9, 12, 15]

Let‟s create a list of even numbers belonging to „S‟ list:

>>>C = [i for i in S if i % 2 = = 0]

196
 >>>print C

[0, 4, 16, 36, 64]

iv) Using built-in object

L = list ( ) will create an empty list

Example

>>>l = list ( )

>>>print l

[ ] # empty list

Or

L = list (sequence)

Example

>>>L = list [(1, 2, 3, 4)]

>>>print L

[1, 2, 3, 4]

A single new list is created every time, you execute [ ]. We have created many
different lists each using [ ]. But if a list is assigned to another variable, a new list
is not created.

i) A=B=[ ]

Creates one list mapped to both A & B

Example

>>>A = B = [10, 20, 30]

>>> print A, B

[10, 20, 30] [10, 20, 30]

ii) A=[]

B=A

Will also create one list mapped to both

197
 Example

>>> A = [1, 2, 3]

>>> B = A

>>> print A, B

[1, 2, 3] [1, 2, 3]

Accessing an element of list

For accessing an element, we use index and we have already seen example doing so. To
access an element of list containing another list, we use pair of index. Lets access
elements of L5 list. Also a sub-list of list can be accessed using list slice.

List Slices
Slice operator works on list also. We know that a slice of a list is its sub-list. For creating
a list slice, we use

[n:m] operator.

>>>print L5 [0]

>>>print L5 [2]

[6, 7, 8]

as the 3rd element of this list is a list. To access a value from this sub-list, we will use

>>>print L5 [2] [0]

>>>print L5 [2] [2]

This will return the part of the list from nth element to mth element, including the first
element but excluding the last element. So the resultant list will have m-n elements in it.

>>> L1 [1:2]

will give

[2]

198
Slices are treated as boundaries, and the result will contain all the elements between
boundaries.

Its Syntax is:

seq = L [start: stop: step]

Where start, stop & step- all three are optional. If you omit first index, slice starts from
„0‟ and omitting of stop will take it to end. Default value of step is 1.

Example

For list L2 containing [“Delhi”, “Chennai”, “Mumbai”]

>>>L2 [0:2]

[“Delhi”, “Chennai”]

Example

>>>list = [10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60]

>>> list [::2] # produce a list with every alternate element

[10, 30, 50]

>>>list [4:] # will produce a list containing all the elements from 5th position
till end

[50, 60]

Example

>>>list [:3]

[10, 20, 30]

>>>list [:]

[10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60]

Example

>>> list [-1] # „-1‟ refers to last elements of list

60

will produce a list with every other element

199
 Note: Since lists are mutable, it is often recommended to make a copy of it before
performing operation that change a list.

Traversing a List
Let us visit each element (traverse the list) of the list to display them on screen. This can
be done in many ways:

(i) i=0

while i < 4:

print L1 [i],

i+=1

will produce following output

1254

(ii) for i in L1:

print i,

will also produce the same output

(iii) i=0

while i < len [L1]:

print L1 [i],

i+=1

OR

i= 0

L = len (L1)

while i < L :

print L1 [i],

i+=1

will also produce the same output.

200
 Here len( ) function is used to get the length of list L1. As length of L1 is 4, i will take
value from 0 to 3.

(iv) for i in range ( len (L1)):

print L1 [i],

Using 2nd way for transversal will only allow us to print the list, but other ways can also
be used to write or update the element of the list.

In 4th way, range ( ) function is used to generate, indices from 0 to len -1; with each
iteration i gets the index of next element and values of list are printed.

Note: for loop in empty list is never executed:

Example

for i in [ ]:

print i

Accessing list with negative index

i=1

while i < len (L1):

print L1 [-i],

i += 1

In this case, Python will add the length of the list to index and then return the
index value and accesses the desired element. In this loop execution for a positive
value of „i‟ L1 [-i] will result into L1 [len (L1)-i] for i=1, L1 [4-1] will be printed. So
resultant of the loop will be 4 5 2.

Appending in the list

Appending a list is adding more element(s) at the end of the list. To add new elements
at the end of the list, Python provides a method append ( ).

Its Syntax is:

List. append (item)

201
L1. append (70)

This will add 70 to the list at the end, so now 70 will be the 5th element of the list, as it
already have 4 elements.

>>> print L1

will produce following on screen

[1, 2, 5, 4, 70]

Example

>>>L4.append (30) # will add 30 at the end of the list

>>>print L4

[„abc‟, 10, 20, 30]

Using append ( ), only one element at a time can be added. For adding more than one
element, extend ( ) method can be used, this can also be used to add elements of another
list to the existing one.

Example

>>>A = [100, 90, 80, 50]

>>> L1. extend (A)

>>> print L1

will add all the elements of list „A‟ at the end of the list „L1‟.

[1, 2, 5, 4, 70, 100, 90, 80, 50]

>>>print A

[100, 90, 80, 50]

Example

>>>B=[2009, 2011, „abc‟]

>>>C=[„xyz‟, „pqr‟, „mn‟]

>>>B.extend (c)

>>>print B

202
 [2009, 2011, „abc‟, „xyz‟, „pqr‟, „mn‟]

Remember: „A‟ remains unchanged

Updating array elements

Updating an element of list is, accomplished by accessing the element & modifying its
value in place. It is possible to modify a single element or a part of list. For first type, we
use index to access single element and for second type, list slice is used. We have seen
examples of updations of an element of list. Lets update a slice.

Example

>>> L1 [1:2] = [10, 20]

>>> print L1

will produce

[1, 10, 20, 4, 70, 100, 90, 80, 50]

Example

>>>A=[10, 20, 30, 40]

>>>A [1:4] = [100]

>>>print A

will produce

[10, 100]

As lists are sequences, they support many operations of strings. For example, operator +
& * results in concatenation & repetition of lists. Use of these operators generate a new
list.

Example

>>> a= L1+L2

will produce a 3rd list a containing elements from L1 & then L2. a will contain

[1, 10, 20, 4, 70, 100, 90, 80, 50, “Delhi”, “Chennai”, “Mumbai”]

203
Example

>>> [1, 2, 3] + [4, 5, 6]

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Example

>>> b = L1*2

>>> print b

[[1, 10, 20, 4, 70, 100, 90, 80, 50, 1, 10, 20, 4, 70, 100, 90, 80, 50]

Example

>>> [„Hi!‟]* 3

[„Hi!‟, „Hi!‟, „Hi!‟]

It is important to know that ‘+’ operator in lists expects the same type of sequence on
both the sides otherwise you get a type error.

If you want to concatenate a list and string, either you have to convert the list to string
or string to list.

Example

>>> str([11, 12]) + “34” or >>>“[11,12]” + “34”

„[11, 12] 34‟

>>> [11, 12] + list (“34”) or >>>[11, 12] + [“3”, “4”]

[11, 12, „3‟, „4‟]

Deleting Elements
It is possible to delete/remove element(s) from the list. There are many ways of doing
so:

(i) If index is known, we can use pop ( ) or del

(ii) If the element is known, not the index, remove ( ) can be used.

(iii) To remove more than one element, del ( ) with list slice can be used.

(iv) Using assignment operator

204
Let us study all the above methods in details:

Pop ( )
It removes the element from the specified index, and also return the element which was
removed.

Its syntax is:

List.pop ([index])

Example

>>> L1 = [1, 2, 5, 4, 70, 10, 90, 80, 50]

>>> a= L1.pop (1) # here the element deleted will be returned to ‘a’

>>> print L1

[1, 5, 4, 70, 10, 90, 80, 50]

>>> print a

If no index value is provided in pop ( ), then last element is deleted.

>>>L1.pop ( )

50

del removes the specified element from the list, but does not return the deleted
value.

>>> del L1 [4]

>>> print L1

[1, 5, 4, 70, 90, 80]

remove ( )
In case, we know the element to be deleted not the index, of the element, then remove (
) can be used.

>>> L1. remove (90)

will remove the value 90 from the list

205
 >>> print L1

[1, 5, 4, 70, 80]

del () with slicing

Consider the following example:

Examples

>>> del L1 [2:4]

>>>print L1

[1, 5, 80]

will remove 2nd and 3rd element from the list. As we know that slice selects all the
elements up to 2nd index but not the 2nd index element. So 4th element will remain in the
list.

>>> L5 [1:2] = [ ]

Will delete the slice

>>>print L5

[1, [6, 7, 8], 3]

Note:
(i) All the methods, modify the list, after deletions.
(ii) If an out of range index is provided with del ( ) and pop ( ), the code will result
in to run-time error.
(iii) del can be used with negative index value also.

Other functions & methods

insert ( )
This method allows us to insert an element, at the given position specified by its index,
and the remaining elements are shifted to accommodate the new element. Insert (

() requires two arguments-index value and item value.

206
Its syntax is

list. insert (index, item)

Index specifies the position (starting from 0) where the element is to be inserted. Item is
the element to be inserted in the list. Length of list changes after insert operation.

Example

>>> L1.insert (3,100)

>>>print L1

will produce

[1, 5, 80, 100]

Note: If the index specified is greater then len (list) the object is inserted in the last
and if index is less than zero, the object is inserted at the beginning.

>>> print len(L1)

>>> L1.insert (6, 29)

>>> L1.insert (-2, 46)

>>>print L1

will produce

[46, 1, 5, 80, 100, 29]

reverse ( )
This method can be used to reverse the elements of the list in place

Its syntax is:

list.reverse ( )

Method does not return anything as the reversed list is stored in the same variable.

Example

>>> L1.reverse ( )

207
 >>> print L1

will produce

[29, 100, 80, 5, 1, 46]

Following will also result into reversed list.

>>>L1 [: : -1]

As this slices the whole sequence with the step of -1 i.e. in reverse order.

sort ( )
For arranging elements in an order Python provides a method sort ( ) and a function
sorted ( ). sort ( ) modifies the list in place and sorted ( ) returns a new sorted list.

Its Syntax are:

sort ([cmp [, key [, reverse]]])

sorted (list [, cmp [, key [, reverse]]])

Parameters mentioned in [ ] are optional in both the cases. These parameters allow us to
customize the function/method.

cmp, argument allow us to override the default way of comparing elements of list. By
default, sort determines the order of elements by comparing the elements in the list
against each other. To overside this, we can use a user defined function which should
take two values and return -1 for ‘less than’, 0 for ‘equal to’ and 1 for „greater than‟.

„Key’ argument is preferred over ‘cmp’ as it produces list faster.

Example

The parameter ‘key’ is for specifying a function that transforms each element of list
before comparison. We can use predefined functions or a user defined function here. If
its user defined then, the function should take a single argument and return a key
which can be used for sorting purpose.

Reverse parameter can have a boolean value which is used to specify the order of
arranging the elements of list. Value ‘True’ for reverse will arrange the elements of list
in descending order and value ‘False’ for reverse will arrange the elements in ascending
order. Default value of this parameter is False.

208
sorted ( ) function also behaves in similar manner except for it produce a new sorted
list, so original is not changed. This function can also be used to sort any iterable
collection. As sort ( ) method does not create a new list so it can be little faster.

Example

>>> L1.sort ( )

>>> print L1

will produce

[1, 5, 29, 46, 80, 100]

>>> L2.sort ( )

>>> print L2

will produce

[„Chennai‟, „Delhi‟, „Mumbai‟]

>>> L2.sort (key=len)

will produce

[„Delhi‟, „Mumbai‟, „Chennai‟]

Here we have specified len ( ) built in function, as key for sorting. So the list will get
sorted by the length of the strings, i.e., from shorted to longest.

sort will call len ( ) function for each element of list and then these lengths will be used
for arranging elements.

>>> L4.sort ( )

>>> print L4

will produce

209
 [10, 20, 30, „abc‟]
>>>L4.sort (reverse = True)
[„abc‟, 30, 20, 10]
>>> def compare (str):
... return len (str)
>>> L2.sort (key=compare)
>>> L2
[„Delhi‟, „Mumbai‟, „Chennai‟]

List as arguments
When a list is passed to the function, the function gets a reference to the list. So if the
function makes any changes in the list, they will be reflected back in the list.

Example

def add_Const (L):

for i in range (len (l)):

L [i] += 10

>>> X = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

>>> add_Const (X)

>>> print X

[11, 12, 13, 14, 15]

Here parameter „L‟ and argument „X‟ are alias for same object. Its state diagram will
look like

So any changes made in L will be reflected to X as lists as mutable.

210
 Note: Here, it becomes important to distinguish between the operations which
modifies a list and operation which creates a new list. Operations which create a new
list will not affect the original (argument) list.

Let‟s look at some examples to see when we have different lists and when an alias is
created.

>>> a = [2, 4, 6]

>>> b = a

will map b to a. To check whether two variables refer to same object (i.e. having same
value), we can use „is‟ operator. So in our example:

>>> a is b

will return „True‟

>>> a = [2, 4, 6]

>>> b = [2, 4, 6]

>>> a is b

False

In first example, Python created one list, reference by a & b. So there are two references
to the same object b. We can say that object [2, 4, 6] is aliased as it has more than one
name, and since lists are mutable. So changes made using „a‟ will affect „b‟.
>>> a [1] = 10
>>> print b
will print
[2, 10, 6]

211
Matrix implementation using list
We can implement matrix operation using list. Matrix operation can be implemented
using nested list. List inside another list is called nested list.

Its syntax is:

a=[[random.random() for row in range(number of row)]for col in range(number

of column)]

Here random function is used. So we need to import random file.

Example

Write a program to input any matrix with mXn, and print the number on the output
screen in matrix format.

Matrix creation
Program 1

m=input ("Enter total number of rows")

n=input ("Enter total number of columns")
l=range (m*n)
k=0
print "Input all matrix elements one after other"
for i in range(m):
for j in range(n):
l[k]=input("Enter new element")
k=k+1
print "output is"
k=0
for i in range(m):
for j in range(n):
print l[k],'\t',
k=k+1
print

212
Output

>>>

Enter total number of rows3

Enter total number of columns3

Input all matrix elements one after other

Enter new element10

Enter new element20

Enter new element30

Enter new element40

Enter new element50

Enter new element60

Enter new element70

Enter new element80

Enter new element90

output is

10 20 30

40 50 60

70 80 90
>>>

Program 2
import random

m=input("Enter total number of rows in the first matrix")

n=input("Enter total number of columns in the first matrix")

a=[[random.random()for row in range(m)]for col in range(n)]

print "Enter all elements one after other"

for i in range(m):

213
 for j in range(n):

a[i][j]=input()

print "output is"

for i in range(m):

for j in range(n):

print a[i][j],'\t',

print

Output

>>>

Enter total number of rows in the first matrix3

Enter total number of columns in the first matrix3

Enter all elements one after other

output is

1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9

>>>

214
Matrix Addition
Write a program to input any two matrices and print sum of matrices.

import random

m1=input ("Enter total number of rows in the first matrix")

n1=input ("Enter total number of columns in the first matrix")

a=[[random.random()for row in range(m1)]for col in range(n1)]

for i in range(m1):

for j in range(n1):

a[i][j]=input()

m2=input("Enter total number of rows in the second matrix")

n2=input("Enter total number of columns in the second matrix")

b=[[random.random()for row in range(m1)]for col in range(n1)]

for i in range(2):

for j in range(2):

b[i][j]=input()

c=[[random.random()for row in range(m1)]for col in range(n1)]

if ((m1==m2) and (n1==n2)):

print "output is"

for i in range(m1):

for j in range(n1):

c[i][j]=a[i][j]+b[i][j]

print c[i][j],'\t',

print

else

print “Matrix addition not possible”

215
Output

>>>

Enter total number of rows in the first matrix2

Enter total number of columns in the first matrix2

Enter total number of rows in the second matrix2

Enter total number of columns in the second matrix2

output is

3 3

3 3

Example

Write a program to input any two matrices and print product of matrices.

import random

m1=input ("Enter total number of rows in the first matrix")

n1=input ("Enter total number of columns in the first matrix")

a=[[random.random()for row in range(m1)]for col in range(n1)]

for i in range(m1):

for j in range(n1):

a[i][j]=input()

216
 m2=input ("Enter total number of rows in the second matrix")

n2=input ("Enter total number of columns in the second matrix")

b=[[random.random()for row in range(m1)]for col in range(n1)]

for i in range(m2):

for j in range(n2):

b[i][j]=input()

c=[[random.random()for row in range(m1)]for col in range(n2)]

if (n1==m2):

for i in range(m1):

for j in range(n2):

c[i][j]=0

for k in range(n1):

c[i][j]+=a[i][k]*b[k][j]

print c[i][j],'\t',

print

else:

print "Multiplication not possible"

Output

>>>

Enter total number of rows in the first matrix2

Enter total number of columns in the first matrix2

Enter total number of rows in the second matrix2

217
 Enter total number of columns in the second matrix2

4 4

4 4

>>>

Example

Write a program to input any matrix and print both diagonal values of the matrix.

import random

m=input ("Enter total number of rows in the first matrix")

n=input ("Enter total number of columns in the first matrix")

a=[[random.random()for row in range(m)] for col in range(n)]

if (m==n):

for i in range(m):

for j in range(n):

a[i][j]=input()

print "First diagonal"

for i in range(m):

print a[i][i],'\t',

print

k=m-1

print "Second diagonal"

for j in range(m):

print a[j][k],'\t',

218
 k-=1

else:

print "Diagonal values are not possible"

Output

>>>

Enter total number of rows in the first matrix3

Enter total number of columns in the first matrix3

First diagonal

1 5 9

Second diagonal

3 5 7

>>>

Functions with list

We can pass list value to function. Whatever modification we are doing with in
function will affect list.

Example

Write a program to pass any list and to arrange all numbers in descending order.

219
 def arrange (l,n):

for i in range(n-1):

for j in range(n-i-1):

if l[j]>l[j+1]:

temp=l[j]

l[j]=l[j+1]

l[j+1]=temp

Output

>>>

>>> l=[7,5,8,2,9,10,3]

>>> arrange (l)

>>> print l

[10, 9, 8, 7, 5, 3, 2]

>>>

Function pass nested list also:

Example

Write a program to input nXm matrix and find sum of all numbers using function.
Function:

def summat(a,m,n):

s=0

for i in range(m):

for j in range(n):

s+=a[i][j]

return s

Note: This function is stored in mataddition.py

220
Function call
import random

import mataddition

m=input("Enter total number of rows in the first matrix")

n=input("Enter total number of columns in the first matrix")

a=[[random.random()for row in range(m)]for col in range(n)]

for i in range(m):

for j in range(n):

a[i][j]=input()

s=mataddition.summat(a,m,n)

print s

Output

>>>

Enter total number of rows in the first matrix2

Enter total number of columns in the first matrix2

10

>>>

Example

# Accessing the elements of a sublist

a = [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5], [6, 7, 8]]

count = -1

for list in a:

221
count + = 1

print “elements of the list at index”, count, “are:”

for item in list:

print item,

print

will produce the result

elements of the list at index 0 are

123

elements of the list at index 1 are

45

elements of the list at index 2 are

678

222
 EXERCISE

1. Define list

2. What is the output of the following code:

a) print type ([1,2])

(i) <type „complex‟>

(ii) <type „int‟>

(iii) <type „list‟>

b) a= [1, 2, 3, None, ( ), [ ]}

print len(a)

(i) Syntax error (ii) 4

(iii) 5 (iv) 6

(v) 7

3. Write the output from the following code:

A=[2,4,6,8,10]

L=len(L)

S=0

for I in range(1,L,2):

S+=A[I]

print “Sum=”,S

4. Find the errors from the following program

n=input (Enter total number of elements)

l=range(n)

print l

for i in (n);

l[i]=input("enter element")

223
 print "All elements in the list on the output screen"

for i on range(n):

print l[i]

5. Write a function group of list (list, size) that takes a list and splits into smaller list
of given size.

6. Write a function to find all duplicates in the list.

7. For each of the expression below, specify its type and value. If it generates error,
write error.

Assume that expressions are evaluated in order.

x= [1, 2, [3, „abc‟, 4], „Hi‟]

(i) x[0]

(ii) x[2]

(iii) x[-1]

(iv) x[0:1]

(v) 2 in x

(vi) x[0]=8

8. For each of the expression below, specify its type and value. If it generates error,
write error:

List A= [1, 4, 3, 0]

List B= [„x‟, „z‟, „t‟, „q‟]

(i) List A.sort ( )

(ii) List A

(iii) List A.insert (0, 100)

(iv) List A.remove (3)

(v) List A.append (7)

(vi) List A+List B

224
 (vii) List B.pop ( )

(viii) List A.extend ([4, 1, 6, 3])

LAB EXERCISE

1. We can use list to represent polynomial.

For Example
p (x) = -13.39 + 17.5 x + 3 x2 + x4
can be stored as
[-13.39, 17.5, 3, 1.0]
Here „index‟ is used to represent power of „x‟ and value at the index used to
represent the coefficient of the term.
Write a function to evaluate the polynomial for a given „x‟.

2. Write a function that takes a list of numbers and returns the cumulative sum; that
is, a new list where the its element is the sum of the first i+1 elements from the
original list. For example, the cumulative sum of [1, 2, 3] is [1, 3, 6].

3. Write a function called chop that takes a list and modifies it, removing the first and
last elements, and returns None. Then write a function called middle that takes a list
and returns a new list that contains all but the first and last elements.

4. Write a function called is_sorted that takes a list as a parameter and returns True if
the list is sorted in ascending order and False otherwise. You can assume (as a
precondition) that the elements of the list can be compared with the relational
operators <, >, etc.

For example, is_sorted ([1, 2, 2]) should return True and is_sorted ([‘b’, ‘a’]) should
return False.

5. Write a function called remove_duplicates that takes a list and returns a new list
with only the unique elements from the original. Hint: they don‟t have to be in the
same order.

6. Write a function that takes in two sorted lists and merges them. The lists may not
be of same length and one or both may be empty. Don‟t use any Python built-in
methods or functions.

225
7. Create a list that contains the names of 5 students of your class. (Do not ask for
input to do so)

(i) Print the list

(ii) Ask the user to input one name and append it to the list

(iii) Print the list

(iv) Ask user to input a number. Print the name that has the number as index
(Generate error message if the number provided is more than last index
value).

(v) Add “Kamal” and “Sanjana” at the beginning of the list by using „+‟.

(vi) Print the list

(vii) Ask the user to type a name. Check whether that name is in the list. If exist,
delete the name, otherwise append it at the end of the list.

(viii) Create a copy of the list in reverse order

(ix) Print the original list and the reversed list.

(x) Remove the last element of the list.

8. Use the list of student names from the previous exercise. Create a for loop that asks
the user for every name whether they would like to keep the name or delete it.
Delete the names which the user no longer wants. Hint: you cannot go through a
list using a for loop and delete elements from the same list simultaneously because
in that way the for loop will not reach all elements. You can either use a second
copy of the list for the loop condition or you can use a second empty list to which
you append the elements that the user does not want to delete.

9. Write a function to find product of the element of a list. What happens when the
function is called with list of strings?

10. Write a program to input NXM matrix and find sum of all even numbers in the
matrix.

11. Write a program to print upper triangle matrix.

12. Write a program to print lower triangle matrix.

13. Write a program to find sum of rows and columns of the matrix.

226
 Chapter 3
Dictionaries

After studying this lesson, the students will be able to

 understand the need of dictionaries;
 solve problems by using dictionaries;
 get clear idea about dictionaries functions; and
 understand the difference between list and dictionary.

What is dictionary?
A dictionary is like a list, but more in general. In a list, index value is an integer, while
in a dictionary index value can be any other data type and are called keys. The key will
be used as a string as it is easy to recall. A dictionary is an extremely useful data storage
construct for storing and retrieving all key value pairs, where each element is accessed
(or indexed) by a unique key. However, dictionary keys are not in sequences and hence
maintain no left-to right order.

Key-value pair
We can refer to a dictionary as a mapping between a set of indices (which are called
keys) and a set of values. Each key maps a value. The association of a key and a value is
called a key-value pair.

Syntax:

my_dict = {'key1': 'value1','key2': 'value2','key3': 'value3'…'keyn': 'valuen'}

Note: Dictionary is created by using curly brackets(ie. {}).

Example

>>> A={1:"one",2:"two",3:"three"}

>>> print A

{1: 'one', 2: 'two', 3: 'three'}

227
In the above example, we have created a list that maps from numbers to English words,
so the keys values are in numbers and values are in strings.

1 one
A =
2 two

3 three

Map between keys and values

Example

>>>computer={'input':'keybord','output':'mouse','language':'python','os':'windows-
8',}

>>> print computer

{'input': 'keyboard', 'os': 'windows-8', 'language': 'python', 'output': 'mouse'}

>>>

In the above example, we have created a list that maps from computer related things
with example, so here the keys and values are in strings. The order of the key-value
pairs is not in same order (ie. input and output orders are not same). We can get
different order of items in different computers. Thus, the order of items in a dictionary
is unpredictable.

Example

>>>
D={'sun':'Sunday','mon':'Monday','tue':'Tuesday','wed':'Wednesday','thu':'Thursda
y','fri':'Friday','sat':'Saturday'}

>>> print D

{'wed': 'Wednesday', 'sun': 'Sunday', 'thu': 'Thursday', 'tue': 'Tuesday', 'mon':

'Monday', 'fri': 'Friday', 'sat': 'Saturday'}

Creation, initializing and accessing the elements in a Dictionary

The function dict ( ) is used to create a new dictionary with no items. This function is
called built-in function. We can also create dictionary using {}.

228
 >>> D=dict()

>>> print D

{}

{} represents empty string. To add an item to the dictionary (empty string), we can use
square brackets for accessing and initializing dictionary values.

Example

>>> H=dict()

>>> H["one"]="keyboard"

>>> H["two"]="Mouse"

>>> H["three"]="printer"

>>> H["Four"]="scanner"

>>> print H

{'Four': 'scanner', 'three': 'printer', 'two': 'Mouse', 'one': 'keyboard'}

>>>

Traversing a dictionary
Let us visit each element of the dictionary to display its values on screen. This can be
done by using ‘for-loop’.

Example

Code

H={'Four': 'scanner', 'three': 'printer', 'two': 'Mouse', 'one': 'keyboard'}

for i in H:

print i,":", H[i]," ",

Output

>>>

Four: scanner one: keyboard three: printer two: Mouse

>>>

229
 OR

Code

H = {'Four': 'scanner', 'three': 'printer', 'two': 'Mouse', 'one': 'keyboard'}

print "i value","\t","H[i] value"

for i in H:

print i,"\t", H[i]

Output

i value H[i] value

Four scanner

one keyboard

three printer

two Mouse

As said previously, the order of items in a dictionary is unpredictable.

Creating, initializing values during run time (Dynamic allocation)

We can create a dictionary during run time also by using dict () function. This way of
creation is called dynamic allocation. Because, during the run time, memory keys and
values are added to the dictionary.

Example

Write a program to input total number of sections and class teachers’ name in 11 th class
and display all information on the output screen.

Code

classxi=dict()

n=input("Enter total number of section in xi class")

i=1

while i<=n:

a=raw_input("enter section")

230
 b=raw_input ("enter class teacher name")

classxi[a]=b

i=i+1

print "Class","\t","Section","\t","teacher name"

for i in classxi:

print "XI","\t",i,"\t",classxi[i]

Output

>>>

Enter total number of section in xi class3

enter sectionA

enter class teacher nameLeena

enter sectionB

enter class teacher nameMadhu

enter sectionC

enter class teacher nameSurpreeth

Class Section teacher name

XI A Leena

XI C Surpreeth

XI B Madhu

>>>

Appending values to the dictionary

We can add new elements to the existing dictionary, extend it with single pair of values
or join two dictionaries into one. If we want to add only one element to the dictionary,
then we should use the following method.

Syntax:

Dictionary name [key]=value

231
Example

>>> a={"mon":"monday","tue":"tuesday","wed":"wednesday"}

>>> a["thu"]="thursday"

>>> print a

{'thu': 'thursday', 'wed': 'wednesday', 'mon': 'monday', 'tue': 'tuesday'}

>>>

Merging dictionaries: An update ( )

Two dictionaries can be merged in to one by using update ( ) method. It merges the
keys and values of one dictionary into another and overwrites values of the same key.

Syntax:

Dic_name1.update (dic_name2)

Using this dic_name2 is added with Dic_name1.

Example

>>> d1={1:10,2:20,3:30}

>>> d2={4:40,5:50}

>>> d1.update(d2)

>>> print d1

{1: 10, 2: 20, 3: 30, 4: 40, 5: 50}

Example

{1: 10, 2: 30, 3: 30, 5: 40, 6: 60} # k>>> d1={1:10,2:20,3:30} # key 2 value is 20

>>> d2={2:30,5:40,6:60} #key 2 value is 30

>>> d1.update(d2)

>>> print d1

ey 2 value is replaced with 30 in d1

232
Removing an item from dictionary
We can remove item from the existing dictionary by using del key word.

Syntax:

del dicname[key]

Example

>>> A={"mon":"monday","tue":"tuesday","wed":"wednesday","thu":"thursday"}

>>> del A["tue"]

>>> print A

{'thu': 'thursday', 'wed': 'wednesday', 'mon': 'monday'}

>>>

Dictionary functions and methods

cmp ( )
This is used to check whether the given dictionaries are same or not. If both are same, it
will return ‘zero’, otherwise return 1 or -1. If the first dictionary having more number of
items, then it will return 1, otherwise return -1.

Syntax:

cmp(d1,d2) #d1and d2 are dictionary.

returns 0 or 1 or -1

Example
>>>
D1={'sun':'Sunday','mon':'Monday','tue':'Tuesday','wed':'Wednesday','thu':'Thursd
ay','fri':'Friday','sat':'Saturday'}

>>>
D2={'sun':'Sunday','mon':'Monday','tue':'Tuesday','wed':'Wednesday','thu':'Thursd
ay','fri':'Friday','sat':'Saturday'}

>>> D3={'mon':'Monday','tue':'Tuesday','wed':'Wednesday'}

>>> cmp(D1,D3) #both are not equal

233
 1

>>> cmp(D1,D2) #both are equal

>>> cmp(D3,D1)

-1

len( )
This method returns number of key-value pairs in the given dictionary.

Syntax:

len(d) #d dictionary

returns number of items in the list.

Example

>>> H={'Four': 'scanner', 'three': 'printer', 'two': 'Mouse', 'one': 'keyboard'}

>>> len(H)

clear ( )
It removes all items from the particular dictionary.

Syntax:

d.clear( ) #d dictionary

Example

>>> D={'mon':'Monday','tue':'Tuesday','wed':'Wednesday'}

>>> print D

{'wed': 'Wednesday', 'mon': 'Monday', 'tue': 'Tuesday'}

>>> D.clear( )

>>> print D

{}

234
get(k, x )
There are two arguments (k, x) passed in ‘get( )’ method. The first argument is key
value, while the second argument is corresponding value. If a dictionary has a given
key (k), which is equal to given value (x), it returns the corresponding value (x) of given
key (k). However, if the dictionary has no key-value pair for given key (k), this method
returns the default values same as given key value. The second argument is optional. If
omitted and the dictionary has no key equal to the given key value, then it returns
None.

Syntax:

D.get (k, x) #D dictionary, k key and x value

Example

>>>
D={'sun':'Sunday','mon':'Monday','tue':'Tuesday','wed':'Wednesday','thu':'Thursda
y','fri':'Friday','sat':'Saturday'}
>>> D.get('wed',"wednesday") # corresponding value wed
'Wednesday'
>>> D.get("fri","monday") # default value of fri
'Friday'
>>> D.get("mon") # default value of mon
'Monday'
>>> D.get("ttu") # None
>>>

has_key( )
This function returns ‘True’, if dictionary has a key, otherwise it returns ‘False’.

Syntax:

D.has_key(k) #D dictionary and k key

Example
>>>

235
 D={'sun':'Sunday','mon':'Monday','tue':'Tuesday','wed':'Wednesday','thu':'Thursda
y','fri':'Friday','sat':'Saturday'}
>>> D.has_key("fri")
True

>>> D.has_key("aaa")

False

>>>

items( )
It returns the content of dictionary as a list of key and value. The key and value pair
will be in the form of a tuple, which is not in any particular order.
Syntax:
D.items() # D dictionary

Example

>>>

D={'sun':'Sunday','mon':'Monday','tue':'Tuesday','wed':'Wednesday','thu':'Thursda
y','fri':'Friday','sat':'Saturday'}

>>> D.items()

[('wed', 'Wednesday'), ('sun', 'Sunday'), ('thu', 'Thursday'), ('tue', 'Tuesday'), ('mon',

'Monday'), ('fri', 'Friday'), ('sat', 'Saturday')]

Note: items () is different from print command because, in print command dictionary
values are written in {}

keys()
It returns a list of the key values in a dictionary, , which is not in any particular order.

Syntax:

D.keys( ) #D dictionary

Example

>>>

236
 D={'sun':'Sunday','mon':'Monday','tue':'Tuesday','wed':'Wednesday','thu':'Thursda
y','fri':'Friday','sat':'Saturday'}

>>> D.keys()

['wed', 'sun', 'thu', 'tue', 'mon', 'fri', 'sat']

>>>

values()
It returns a list of values from key-value pairs in a dictionary, which is not in any
particular order. However, if we call both the items () and values() method without
changing the dictionary's contents between these two (items() and values()), Python
guarantees that the order of the two results will be the same.

Syntax:

D.values() #D values

Example

>>>

D={'sun':'Sunday','mon':'Monday','tue':'Tuesday','wed':'Wednesday','thu':'Thursda
y','fri':'Friday','sat':'Saturday'}

>>> D.values()

['Wednesday', 'Sunday', 'Thursday', 'Tuesday', 'Monday', 'Friday', 'Saturday']

>>> D.items()

[('wed', 'Wednesday'), ('sun', 'Sunday'), ('thu', 'Thursday'), ('tue', 'Tuesday'), ('mon',

'Monday'), ('fri', 'Friday'), ('sat', 'Saturday')]

Solved Examples
1. Write a python program to input ‘n’ names and phone numbers to store it in a
dictionary and to input any name and to print the phone number of that particular
name.

Code

phonebook=dict()

237
 n=input("Enter total number of friends")

i=1

while i<=n:

a=raw_input("enter name")

b=raw_input("enter phone number")

phonebook[a]=b

i=i+1

name=raw_input("enter name")

f=0

l=phonebook.keys()

for i in l:

if (cmp(i,name)==0):

print "Phone number= ",phonebook[i]

f=1

if (f==0):

print "Given name not exist"

Output

>>>

Enter total number of friends3

enter nameMona

enter phone number23456745

enter nameSonu

enter phone number45678956

enter nameRohan

enter phone number25678934

enter nameSonu

238
 Phone number= 45678956

>>>

2. Write a program to input ‘n’ employee number and name and to display all
employee’s information in ascending order based upon their number.

Code

empinfo=dict()

n=input("Enter total number of employees")

i=1

while i<=n:

a=raw_input("enter number")

b=raw_input("enter name")

empinfo[a]=b

i=i+1

l=empinfo.keys()

l.sort()

print "Employee Information"

print "Employee Number",'\t',"Employee Name"

for i in l:

print i,'\t',empinfo[i]

Output

>>>

Enter total number of employees5

enter number555

enter nameArpit

enter number333

239
 enter nameShilpa

enter number777

enter nameKush

enter number222

enter nameAnkita

enter number666

enter nameArun

Employee Information

Employee Number Employee Name

222 Ankita

333 Shilpa

555 Arpit

666 Arun

777 Kush

>>>

3. Write the output for the following Python codes.

A={1:100,2:200,3:300,4:400,5:500}

print A.items()

print A.keys()

print A.values()

Output

[(1, 100), (2, 200), (3, 300), (4, 400), (5, 500)]

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

[100, 200, 300, 400, 500]

240
4. Write a program to create a phone book and delete particular phone number using
name.

Code

phonebook=dict()

n=input("Enter total number of friends")

i=1

while i<=n:

a=raw_input("enter name")

b=raw_input("enter phone number")

phonebook[a]=b

i=i+1

name=raw_input("enter name")

del phonebook[name]

l=phonebook.keys()

print "Phonebook Information"

print "Name",'\t',"Phone number"

for i in l:

print i,'\t',phonebook[i]

Output

>>>

Enter total number of friends5

enter nameLeena

enter phone number 9868734523

enter nameMadhu

enter phone number 9934567890

enter nameSurpreeth

241
enter phone number 9678543245

enter nameDeepak

enter phone number 9877886644

enter nameAnuj

enter phone number 9655442345

enter nameDeepak

Phonebook Information

Name Phone number

Leena 9868734523

Surpreeth 9678543245

Madhu 9934567890

Anuj 9655442345

>>>

242
 EXERCISE
1. Write the code to input any 5 years and the population of any city and print it on
the screen.

2. Write a code to input ‘n’ number of subject and head of the department and also
display all information on the output screen.

3. Write the output for the following codes.

A={10:1000,20:2000,30:3000,40:4000,50:5000}

print A.items()
print A.keys()
print A.values()

4. Write a code to create customer’s list with their number & name and delete any
particular customer using his /her number.

5. Write a Python program to input ‘n’ names and phone numbers to store it in a
dictionary and print the phone number of a particular name.

6. Find errors from the following codes:

c=dict()
n=input(Enter total number )
i=1
while i<=n
a=raw_input("enter place")
b=raw_input("enter number")
c(a)=b
i=i+1
print "place","\t","number"
for i in c:
print i,"\t",cla[i]

243
 Chapter 4
Tuples

After studying this lesson, the students will be able to

 understand the need of Tuples;
 solve problems by using Tuples;
 get clear idea about Tuple functions; and
 understand the difference between list, dictionary and tuples.

What is a Tuple?
A tuple is a sequence of values, which can be of any type and they are indexed by
integer. Tuples are just like list, but we can’t change values of tuples in place. Thus
tuples are immutable. The index value of tuple starts from 0.

A tuple consists of a number of values separated by commas. For example:

>>> T=10, 20, 30, 40

>>> print T

(10, 20, 30, 40)

But in the result, same tuple is printed using parentheses. To create a tuple with single
element, we have to use final comma. A value with in the parenthesis is not tuple.

Example
>>> T=(10)
>>> type(T)
<type 'int'>

Example

>>> t=10,

>>> print t

(10,)

244
Example

>>> T=(10,20)

>>> type(T)

<type 'tuple'>

Example

Tuple with string values

>>> T=('sun','mon','tue')

>>> print T

('sun', 'mon', 'tue')

Example

Tuples with single character

>>> T=('P','Y','T','H','O','N')

>>> print T

('P', 'Y', 'T', 'H', 'O', 'N')

Tuple Creation
If we need to create a tuple with a single element, we need to include a final comma.

Example

>>> t=10,

>>> print t

(10,)

Another way of creating tuple is built-in function tuple ().

Syntax:

T = tuple()

Example

>>> T=tuple()

245
 >>> print T

()

Add new element to Tuple

We can add new element to tuple using + operator.

Example

>>> t=(10,20,30,40)

>>> t+(60,) # this will not create modification of t.

(10, 20, 30, 40, 60)

>>> print t

(10, 20, 30, 40)

>>> t=t+(60,) # this will do modification of t.

>>> print t

(10, 20, 30, 40, 60)

Example

Write a program to input ‘n’ numbers and store it in tuple.

Code

t=tuple()

n=input("Enter any number")

print " enter all numbers one after other"

for i in range(n):

a=input("enter number")

t=t+(a,)

print "output is"

print t

246
Output

>>>

Enter any number3

enter all numbers one after other

enter number10

enter number20

enter number30

output is

(10, 20, 30)

>>>

Another version of the above program:

Code

t=tuple()

n=input("Enter any number")

print " enter all numbers one after other"

for i in range(n):

a=input("enter number")

t=t+(a,)

print "output is"

for i in range(n):

print t[i]

Output

>>>

Enter any number3

enter all numbers one after other

enter number10

247
 enter number20

enter number30

output is

10

20

30

>>>

We can also add new element to tuple by using list. For that we have to convert the
tuple into a list first and then use append() function to add new elements to the list.
After completing the addition, convert the list into tuple. Following example illustrates
how to add new elements to tuple using a list.

>>> T=tuple() #create empty tuple

>>> print T

()

>>> l=list(T) #convert tuple into list

>>> l.append(10) #Add new elements to list

>>> l.append(20)

>>> T=tuple(l) #convert list into tuple

>>> print T

(10, 20)

Initializing tuple values:

>>> T=(0,)*10

>>> print T

(0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)

Tuple Assignment
If we want to interchange (swap) any two variable values, we have to use temporary
variable. For example;

248
 >>> A=10

>>> B=20

>>> print A,B

10 20

>>> T=A

>>> A=B

>>> B=T

>>> print A,B

20 10

But in python, tuple assignment is more elegant:

Example

>>> T1=(10,20,30)

>>> T2=(100,200,300,400)

>>> print T1

(10, 20, 30)

>>> print T2

(100, 200, 300, 400)

>>> T1,T2=T2,T1 # swap T1 and T2

>>> print T1

(100, 200, 300, 400)

>>> print T2

(10, 20, 30)

The left side is a tuple of variables, while 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.

249
The number of variables on the left and the number of values on the right have to be the
same:

Example

>>> T1=(10,20,30)

>>> T2=(100,200,300)

>>> t3=(1000,2000,3000)

>>> T1,T2=T2,T1,t3

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "<pyshell#3>", line 1, in <module>

T1,T2=T2,T1,t3

ValueError: too many values to unpack

Here, two tuples are in the left side and three tuples are in right side. That is why, we
get errors. Thus, it is required to have same number of tuples in both sides to get the
correct result.

Example

>>> T1,T2,t3=t3,T1,T2

>>> print T1

(1000, 2000, 3000)

>>> print T2

(10, 20, 30)

>>> print t3

(100, 200, 300)

Tuple Slices
Slice operator works on Tuple also. This is used to display more than one selected value
on the output screen. Slices are treated as boundaries and the result will contain all the
elements between boundaries.

250
Syntax is:

Seq = T [start: stop: step]

Where start, stop & step all three are optional. If we omit first index, slice starts from ‘0’.
On omitting stop, slice will take it to end. Default value of step is 1.

Example

>>> T=(10,20,30,40,50)

>>> T1=T[2:4]

>>> print T1

(30, 40)

In the above example, starting position is 2 and ending position is 3(4-1), so the selected
elements are 30 & 40.

>>> T[:]

(10, 20, 30, 40, 50)

Will produce a copy of the whole tuple.

>>> T[::2]

(10, 30, 50)

Will produce a Tuple with every alternate element.

>>> T[:3]

(10, 20, 30)

Will produce 0 to 2(3-1)

>>> T[2:]

(30, 40, 50)

Will produce from 2 to end.

251
Tuple Functions

cmp( )
This is used to check whether the given tuples are same or not. If both are same, it will
return ‘zero’, otherwise return 1 or -1. If the first tuple is big, then it will return 1,
otherwise return -1.

Syntax:
cmp(t1,t2) #t1and t2 are tuples.
returns 0 or 1 or -1

Example

>>> T1=(10,20,30)
>>> T2=(100,200,300)
>>> T3=(10,20,30)
>>> cmp(T1,T2)
-1
>>> cmp(T1,T3)
0
>>> cmp(T2,T1)
1

len( )
It returns the number of items in a tuple.

Syntax:

len(t) #t tuples

returns number of items in the tuple.

Example
>>> T2=(100,200,300,400,500)
>>> len(T2)
5

252
max( )
It returns its largest item in the tuple.
Syntax:
max(t) #t tuples
returns maximum value among the given tuple.
Example
>>> T=(100,200,300,400,500)
>>> max(T)
500

min( )
It returns its smallest item in the tuple.
Syntax:
min(t) #t tuples
returns minimum value among the given tuple.
Example
>>> T=(100,200,300,400,500)
>>> min(T)
100

tuple( )
It is used to create empty tuple.
Syntax:
T=tuple() #t tuples
Create empty tuple.
Example
>>> t=tuple()
>>> print t
()

253
Solved Examples
1. Write a program to input 5 subject names and put it in tuple and display that tuple
information on the output screen.

Code

t=tuple()

print " enter all subjects one after other";

for i in range(5):

a=raw_input("enter subject")

t=t+(a,)

print "output is"

print t

Output

>>>

enter all subjects one after other

enter subjectEnglish

enter subjectHindi

enter subjectMaths

enter subjectScience

enter subjectSocial Science

output is

('English', 'Hindi', 'Maths', 'Science', 'Social Science')

>>>

2. Write a program to input any two tuples and interchange the tuple values.

Code

t1=tuple()

n=input("Total number of values in first tuple")

254
 for i in range(n):

a=input("enter elements")

t1=t1+(a,)

t2=tuple()

m=input("Total number of values in first tuple")

for i in range(m):

a=input("enter elements")

t2=t2+(a,)

print "First Tuple"

print t1

print "Second Tuple"

print t2

t1,t2=t2,t1

print "AFTER SWAPPING"

print "First Tuple"

print t1

print "Second Tuple"

print t2

Output

>>>

Total number of values in first tuple3

enter elements100

enter elements200

enter elements300

Total number of values in first tuple4

enter elements10

255
 enter elements20

enter elements30

enter elements40

First Tuple

(100, 200, 300)

Second Tuple

(10, 20, 30, 40)

AFTER SWAPPING
First Tuple

(10, 20, 30, 40)

Second Tuple

(100, 200, 300)

>>>

3. Write a program to input ‘n’ numbers and store it in a tuple and find maximum &
minimum values in the tuple.

Code

t=tuple()

n=input("Total number of values in tuple")

for i in range(n):

a=input("enter elements")

t=t+(a,)

print "maximum value=",max(t)

print "minimum value=",min(t)

Output

>>>

Total number of values in tuple3

256
 enter elements40

enter elements50

enter elements10

maximum value= 50

minimum value= 10

>>>

4. Find the output from the following code:

T=(10,30,2,50,5,6,100,65)

print max(T)

print min(T)

Output

100

5. Find the output from the following code:

t=tuple()

t = t +(PYTHON,)

print t

print len(t)

t1=(10,20,30)

print len(t1)

Output

('PYTHON',)

257
 EXERCISE

1. Write the output from the following codes;

(i) t=(10,20,30,40,50)

print len(t)

(ii) t=('a','b','c','A','B')

max(t)

min(t)

(iii) T1=(10,20,30,40,50)

T2 =(10,20,30,40,50)

T3 =(100,200,300)

cmp(T1,T2)

cmp(T2,T3)

cmp(T3,T1)

(iv) t=tuple()

Len(t)

(v) T1=(10,20,30,40,50)

T2=(100,200,300)

T3=T1+T2

print T3

2. Write a program to input two set values and store it in tuples and also do the
comparison.

3. Write a program to input ‘n’ employees’ salary and find minimum & maximum
salary among ‘n’ employees.

4. Find the errors from the following code:

t=tuple{}

258
 n=input(Total number of values in tuple)

for i in range(n)

a=input("enter elements")

t=t+(a)

print "maximum value=",max(t)

print "minimum value=",min(t)

5. Write a program to input ‘n’ customers’ name and store it in tuple and display all
customers’ names on the output screen.

6. Write a program to input ‘n’ numbers and separate the tuple in the following
manner.

Example

T=(10,20,30,40,50,60)

T1 =(10,30,50)

T2=(20,40,60)

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Computer Science - Class XI
CENTRAL BOARD OF SECONDARY EDUCATION
Shiksha Kendra, 2, Community Centre, Preet Vihar, Delhi-110 092 India