String variables and asking a user to enter

a value

input
How can we ask a user for information?

name = input("What is your name? ")

The input function allows you to specify a message to display

and returns the value typed in by the user.
We use a variable to remember the value entered by the user.
We called our variable “name” but you can call it just about
anything as long the variable name doesn’t contain spaces
Think of a variable as a box where you can store
something and come back to get it later.

name

Chris
If you need to remember more than one value, just
create more variables

name favoriteMovie
Real
Chris
Genius
city

Pasadena
You can access the value you stored later in your
code

name = input("What is your name?

print(name)
"
You can also change the value of a variable later in
the code

name = input("What is your name?

print(name)
name = "Mary"
print(name)
Which of the following do you think would be good
names for variables?
• Variable1
• First Name
• Date
• 3Name
• DOB
• DateOfBirth
• YourFavoriteSignInTheHoroscope
Variable names

• Should be meaningful (e.g. FirstName not variable1)

• Should be specific (BirthDate not Date)
• Should not contain spaces (FirstName not First Name)
• Should be descriptive but not too long (FavoriteSign not
YourFavoriteSignInTheHoroscope)
• Are case sensitive (FirstName and firstname would be two
different variables)
• Cannot start with a number (Name1 is okay 1Name is not)
You can combine variables and strings with the +
symbol

firstName = input("What is your first name? ")

lastName = input("What is your last name? " )
print("Hello" + firstName + lastName)
Often you need to add punctuation or spaces to
format the output correctly

firstName = input("What is your first name? ")

lastName = input("What is your last name? " )
print("Hello " + firstName + " " + lastName)
Now you can create a story teller program!

animal = input("What is your favorite animal? " )

building = input("Name a famous building: ")
color = input("What is your favorite color? ")
print("Hickory Dickory Dock!")
print("The "+color+" "+animal+" ran up the "+building)
Variables also allow you to manipulate the contents
of the variable

message = 'Hello world'

print(message.lower())
print(message.upper())
print(message.swapcase())
Did you notice the pop up list?

That’s intellisense.

Visual Studio will suggest possible

functions that you can call
automatically after you type the ‘.’

You can also use CTRL+J or

CTRL+SPACE to launch intellisense
What do you think these functions will do?

message = 'Hello world'

print(message.find('world'))
print(message.count('o'))
print(message.capitalize())
print(message.replace('Hello','Hi'))
Programmers do not memorize all these functions!!

So how do programmers find them when they need them?

• Intellisense
• Documentation
• Internet searches
How could we…

Have a user enter their postal code and then display that postal
code in all upper case letters even if the user typed it in lowercase?

postalCode = input("Please enter your postal code: ")

print(postalCode.upper())
Did you notice?

The intellisense didn’t appear to help us select the upper() function.

That’s because our program didn’t know we were going to store a string
value, in the postalCode variable. The upper() function is only for strings.
A good habit when coding in any language is to initialize your variables.
That means when you create them you give them an initial value.
postalCode = " "
postalCode = input("Please enter your postal code: ")
print(postalCode.upper())
How could we…

Ask someone for their name and then display the name
someone with the first letter of their first and last name
uppercase and the rest of their name lowercase?

name = " "

name = input("Please enter your name: ")
print(name.capitalize())
Functions and variables allow us to make new
mistakes in our code…

Each line of code below has a mistake…

message = Hello world message = 'Hello world'

23message = 'Hello world' 23message = 'Hello world'
New message = 'Hi there' New message = 'Hi there'
print(message.upper) print(message.upper())
print(mesage.lower()) print(message.lower())
print(message.count()) print(message.count('H'))
Storing numbers
You can store numbers in variables as well

age = 42
print(age)
With numbers you can do math

width = 20
height = 5

area = width * height

print(area)

perimeter = 2*width + 2*height

print(perimeter)

perimeter = 2*(width+height)
print(perimeter)
Math rules haven’t changed since Grade 4

Order of operations
( ) parentheses
** exponent (e.g. **2 squared **3 cubed)
*/ multiplication and division
+ - addition and subtraction
Of course this means we have more ways to make
mistakes too!
salary = '5000'
bonus = '500'
payCheck = salary + bonus
print(payCheck)
Because we put quotes around the values, the
program thought salary and bonus were strings
so it concatenated instead of adding
salary = 5000
bonus = 500
payCheck = salary + bonus
print(payCheck)
Could you ask the user to enter their bonus and
salary values?

salary = input("Please enter your salary: ")

bonus = input("Please enter your bonus: ")
payCheck = salary + bonus
print(payCheck)
The input function always returns a string

We need a way to tell our program that it’s

a number and not a string
There are functions to convert from one datatype to
another.
int(value) converts to an integer
long(value) converts to a long integer
float(value) converts to a floating number (i.e. a
number that can hold decimal places)
str(value) converts to a string

Which function should we use for our scenario?

Since the amounts entered could include decimals –
choose float
salary = input("Please enter your salary: ")
bonus = input("Please enter your bonus: ")
payCheck = float(salary) + float(bonus)
print(payCheck)

What do you think will happen if someone types “BOB” as

their salary
The code crashes because we can’t convert the string
“BOB” into a numeric value. We will learn how to handle
errors later!
Working with dates and times

datetime
What is today’s date?

• The datetime class allows us to get the current date and time

#The import statement gives us access to

#the functionality of the datetime class
import datetime
#today is a function that returns today's date
print (datetime.date.today())
You can store dates in variables

import datetime

#store the value in a variable called currentDate

currentDate = datetime.date.today()
print (currentDate)
You can access different parts of the date
import datetime
currentDate = datetime.date.today()
print (currentDate)
print (currentDate.year)
print (currentDate.month)
print (currentDate.day)
But what if you want to display the date with a
different format?
• Welcome to one of the things that drives programmers insane!
• Different countries and different users like different date formats,
often the default isn’t what you need
• There is always a way to handle it, but it will take a little time and
extra code
• The default format is YYYY-MM-DD
In Python we use strftime to format dates

import datetime
currentDate = datetime.date.today()
#strftime allows you to specify the date format
print (currentDate.strftime('%d %b,%Y'))
What the heck are %d %b and %Y?

• %d is the day of the month

• %b is the abbreviation for the current month
• %Y is the 4 digit year
Here’s a few more you may find useful

• %b is the month abbreviation

• %B is the full month name
• %y is two digit year
• %a is the day of the week abbreviated
• %A is the day of the week

• For a full list visit strftime.org

Could you print out a wedding invitation?

“Please attend our event Sunday, July 20th in the year 1997”
import datetime
currentDate = datetime.date.today()
#strftime allows you to specify the date format
print (currentDate.strftime
('Please attend our event %A, %B %d in the year %Y'))
So… what if I don’t want English?

• In programmer speak we call that localization

• Did I mention dates drive programmers insane?
• By default the program uses the language of the machine where
it is running
• But… since if you can’t always rely on computer settings it is
possible to force Python to use a particular language
• It just takes more time and more code. You will probably want
the babel Python library http://babel.pocoo.org/
Can I ask a user for their birthday?
birthday = input ("What is your birthday? ")
print ("Your birthday is " + birthday)

Can you think of any situations where this code might not
work the way we want?
Can I ask a user for their birthday?
birthday = input ("What is your birthday? ")
print ("Your birthday is " + birthday)

What datatype is birthday?

string

if we want to treat it like a date (for example use the datetime

functions to print it in a particular format) we must convert it
to a date
The strptime function allows you to convert a string
to a date
import datetime
birthday = input ("What is your birthday? ")
birthdate =
datetime.datetime.strptime(birthday,"%m/%d/%Y").date()
#why did we list datetime twice?
#because we are calling the strptime function
#which is part of the datetime class
#which is in the datetime module
print ("Your birth month is " + birthdate.strftime('%B'))
But what if the user doesn’t enter the date in the
format I specify in strptime?

birthdate = datetime.datetime.strptime(birthday,"%m/%d/%Y")

• Your code will crash so…

• Tell the user the date format you want
birthday = input ("What is your birthday? (mm/dd/yyyy) ")
• Add error handling, which we will cover in a later module
Dates seem like a lot of hassle, is it worth it? Why not
just store them as strings!
• You can create a countdown to say how many days until a big
event or holiday
nextBirthday =
datetime.datetime.strptime('12/20/2014','%m/%d/%Y').date()
currentDate = datetime.date.today()
#If you subtract two dates you get back the number of days
#between those dates
print (nextBirthday - currentDate)
Dates seem like a lot of hassle, is it worth it? Why not
just store them as strings!
• You can tell someone when the milk in their fridge will expire
currentDate = datetime.date.today()
#timedelta allows you to specify the time
#to add or subtract from a date
print (currentDate + datetime.timedelta(days=15))
print (currentDate + datetime.timedelta(hours=15))
You will be amazed how often you need to work with
dates!
• If datetime doesn’t have what you need, check out the dateutil
library (for example you might want to know the number of
years between two dates instead of number of days)
What about times?

• It is called Datetime, so yes it can store times.

import datetime
currentTime = datetime.datetime.now()
print (currentTime)
print (currentTime.hour)
print (currentTime.minute)
print (currentTime.second)
Just like with dates you can use strftime() to format
the way a time is displayed
import datetime
currentTime = datetime.datetime.now()
print (datetime.datetime.strftime(currentTime,'%H:%M'))

%H Hours (24 hr clock)

%I Hours (12 hr clock)
%p AM or PM
%m Minutes
%S Seconds
Conditional code

If statements
Sometimes you want your code to react differently to
different situations
• If the user chooses express shipping, charge an extra $10
• If I win the lottery quit my job
• If the hockey player gets the puck in the net, add one to the
score
If statements allow you to specify code that only
executes if a specific condition is true

answer=input("Would you like express shipping?")

if answer == "yes" :
print("That will be an extra $10")

What do you think the == symbol means?

You can use different symbols to check for different
conditions
== is equal to if answer == "yes" :
!= is not equal to if answer != "no" :
< is less than if total < 100 :
> is greater than if total > 100 :
<= is less than or equal to if total <= 100 :
>= is great than or equal to if total >= 100 :
If statements allow you to specify code that only
executes if a specific condition is true
answer=input("Would you like express shipping? ")
if answer == "yes" :
print("That will be an extra $10")
print("Have a nice day")

Does it matter if that print statement is indented?

YES – the indented code is only executed if the
condition is true
Almost every if statement can be written two ways

if answer == "yes" :
if not answer == "no" :

if total < 100 :

if not total >= 100 :

Which do you prefer?

What do you think will happen if we type “YES”
instead of “yes”
answer=input("Would you like express shipping? ")
if answer == "yes" :
print("That will be an extra $10")
print("Have a nice day")

One of the challenges of working with strings of

characters, is that the computer considers “y” and
“Y” to be two different letters.
Is there a way we could change a string from
uppercase to lowercase?
answer=input("Would you like express shipping?")
if answer.lower() == "yes" :
print("That will be an extra $10")
print("Have a nice day")

Hint: There were functions we could call for variables

Hint: lower()
What if we try an if statement with numbers instead
of strings
deposit = 150
if deposit > 100 :
print("You get a free toaster!")
print("Have a nice day")

What will appear on the screen if deposit is 150?

What will appear on the screen if deposit is 50?
What will appear on the screen if deposit is 100?
Always test should it be >,< or <=, >=

deposit = 150
if deposit > 100 :
print("You get a free toaster!")
print("Have a nice day")

What will appear on the screen if deposit is 150?

What will appear on the screen if deposit is 50?
What will appear on the screen if deposit is exactly 100?
How could we let the user enter the amount to
deposit?
deposit=input("How much would you like to deposit? ")
if deposit > 100 :
print("You get a free toaster!")
print("Have a nice day")

Why did our code crash?

How can we fix it?
We have to convert the string value returned by the
input function to a number
deposit=input("How much would you like to deposit? ")
if float(deposit) > 100 :
print("You get a free toaster!")
print("Have a nice day")
What if you get a free toaster for over $100 and a
free mug for under $100
deposit=input("How much would you like to deposit? ")
if float(deposit) > 100 :
print("You get a free toaster!")
else:
print("Enjoy your mug!")
print("Have a nice day")
The code in the else statement is only executed if the
condition is NOT true
What will appear on the screen if we enter 50? 150? 100?
What if you get a free tv for over $1000, a toaster for
over $100 and a free mug for under $100!
deposit=input("How much would you like to deposit? ")
if float(deposit) > 100 :
print("You get a free toaster!")
else:
print("Enjoy your mug!")
print("Have a nice day")
The code in the else statement is only executed if the
condition is NOT true
What will appear on the screen if we enter 50? 150? 100?
You can use boolean variables to remember if a
condition is true or false
deposit= input("how much would you like to deposit? ")
if float(deposit) > 100 :
#Set the boolean variable freeToaster to True
freeToaster=True

#if the variable freeToaster is True

#the print statement will execute
if freeToaster :
print("enjoy your toaster")
Make sure you test what happens when your if statement is
true and what happens when your if statement is false.
Why does our code crash when we enter a value of
50 for a deposit?
deposit= input("how much would you like to deposit? ")
if float(deposit) > 100 :
#Set the boolean variable freeToaster to True
freeToaster=True

#if the variable freeToaster is True

#the print statement will execute
if freeToaster :
print("enjoy your toaster")
Look at the error message: Name ‘freeToaster’ is not defined.
It’s always a good idea to initialize your variables!
#Initialize the variable to fix the error
freeToaster=False

deposit= input("how much would you like to deposit? ")

if float(deposit) > 100 :
#Set the boolean variable freeToaster to True
freeToaster=True

#if the variable freeToaster is True

#the print statement will execute
if freeToaster :
print("enjoy your toaster")
Aren’t you just making the code more complicated
by using the Boolean variable?
• That depends…
• What if you are writing a program, and there is more than one
place you have to check that condition? You could check the
condition once and remember the result in the Boolean variable
• What if the condition is very complicated to figure out? It might
be easier to read your code if you just use a Boolean variable
(often called a flag) in your if statement
And now we have more ways to make typing
mistakes! Can you find three?
deposit=input("How much would you like to deposit? ")
if float(deposit) > 100
print("You get a free toaster!")
freeToaster=true
else:
print("Enjoy your mug!")
print("Have a nice day")

deposit=input("How much would you like to deposit? ")

if float(deposit) > 100 :
print("You get a free toaster!")
freeToaster=True
else:
print("Enjoy your mug!")
print("Have a nice day")
Handling more complex conditions

And/or, nested if, switch

Sometimes you have multiple conditions that affect
what you want to happen
• If you are in Canada say hello in English, if you are in Germany
use German, if you are in France use French, …
• If you win the lottery and the prize is over a million dollars then
retire to a life of luxury
• If it is Monday, check to see if there is fresh coffee. If there is no
fresh coffee go to the nearest café
If you are in Canada say hello in English, if you are in
Germany use German, if you are in France use
French, …
• This is an interesting situation because you really only have one
condition to check, but that one condition could have many
different values
You can use an “elif” to check for different values
country = input("Where are you from? " )

if country == "CANADA" :
print("Hello")
elif country == "GERMANY" :
print("Guten Tag")
elif country == "FRANCE" :
print("Bonjour")

Note that the elif statement is not indented!

“elif” is short for Else if
What if someone enters a country we didn’t list?

We should add an “else” statement to catch any conditions we didn’t list

country = input("Where are you from? " )

if country == "CANADA" :
print("Hello")
elif country == "GERMANY" :
print("Guten Tag")
elif country == "FRANCE" :
print("Bonjour")
else :
print("Aloha/Ciao/G’Day")
If you win the lottery and the prize is over a million
dollars then retire to a life of luxury
• Sometimes the decision on whether to take the next step
depends on a combination of factors
• If I win the lottery, but only win $5 I can’t retire
• If the lottery gives out a million dollars but I didn’t win, I can’t
retire
• I can only retire if I win the lottery and the prize was over a
million dollars
Using “and” allows you to require
multiple conditions to be true
The “and” is only evaluated as True if both conditions
are True.

#Imagine you have code that ran earlier which

#set these two variables
wonLottery = True
bigWin = True

#print statement only executes if both conditions are true

if wonLottery and bigWin :
print("you can retire")
Here are all the possible combinations
if firstCondition and secondCondition :

First Condition is Second Condition is Statement is

True True True
True False False
False True False
False False False
Sometimes we want to do something if one
condition “or” another is True
• If it’s Saturday or Sunday I can sleep in
• If it’s raining or snowing don’t bike to work
Using “or” allows you to require
only one of two or more conditions
to be true
The “or” is evaluated as True if either of the
conditions is True.

#Imagine you have code that ran earlier which

#set these two variables
saturday = True
sunday = False

#print statement executes if either condition is true

if saturday or sunday :
print("you can sleep in")
Here are all the possible combinations
if firstCondition or secondCondition :

First Condition is Second Condition is Statement is

True True True
True False True
False True True
False False False
You can combine multiple “and”/“or” in a single if
statement
if month == "Sep" or month =="Apr"
or month == "Jun" or month == "Nov" :
print("There are 30 days in this month")

if favMovie == "Star Wars"

and favBook == "Lord of the Rings"
and favEvent == "ComiCon" :
print("You and I should hang out")
You can combine “and”/”or” in a single statement

if country == "CANADA" and

pet == "MOOSE" or pet == "BEAVER" :
print("Do you play hockey too?")

Make sure you test different combinations

• Country = CANADA, Pet = MOOSE
• Country = CANADA, Pet = BEAVER
• Country = VIETNAM, Pet = MOOSE This one doesn’t seem to work the
way you would expect!
• Country = VIETNAM, Pet = BEAVER
Do you remember learning order of operations for
math in school?
• 8+5*2=?
• Multiplication and Division are done before addition and
subtraction
• 8+5*2 = 18
There is an order of operations for “and”/”or”: “and”
are evaluated first
if country == "CANADA" and pet == "MOOSE"
or pet == "BEAVER" :
print("Do you play hockey too?")
In math, how can you specify that you want to do
addition before multiplication?
• Use parentheses!
• (8+5)*2 = 26
We can use parentheses to execute “or” before “and”

if country == "CANADA" and

(pet == "MOOSE" or pet == "BEAVER") :
print("Do you play hockey too")

When in doubt, just add parentheses whenever you combine and/or in

a single if statement.

It might be redundant, but it will be easier for someone to read your

code and you are less likely to make mistakes.
Sometimes we have multiple conditions but just
using and “and”/”or” may not work
• How could you handle this in code?
• If it is Monday, go check to see if there is fresh coffee. If there is
no fresh coffee go to the nearest café
• In this situation you have to check a condition, if it is true you
want to check another condition.
You can nest if statements inside each other
monday = True
freshCoffee = False
if monday :
#you could have code here to check for fresh coffee

# the if statement is nested, so this if statement

# is only executed if the other if statement is true
if not freshCoffee :
print("go buy a coffee!")
print("I hate Mondays")
print("now you can start work")
You have to be VERY careful with how the code is indented, because
that determines which code goes with which if statement
Repeating yourself

Repeating code

For loops
Did you know Python works as an Etch a Sketch?

import turtle
turtle.forward(100)
turtle likes to draw 

import turtle
turtle.color('green')
turtle.forward(100)
turtle.right(45)
turtle.color('blue')
turtle.forward(50)
turtle.right(45)
turtle.color('pink')
turtle.forward(100)
You can probably guess what some of the turtle
commands do

right(x) Rotate right x degrees

left(x) Rotate left x degrees
color(‘x’) Change pen color to x
forward(x) Move forward x
backward(x) Move backward x
How would we get turtle do draw a square?

import turtle
turtle.forward(100) We are just repeating
turtle.right(90) the same two lines of
turtle.forward(100) code
turtle.right(90)
turtle.forward(100)
turtle.right(90)
turtle.forward(100)
Loops allow us to repeat the same line of code as
often as we want
Number of times to execute
import turtle the code in the loop
for steps in range(4):
turtle.forward(100)
turtle.right(90)

You MUST indent the code

you want repeated
When you change the range, you change the
number of times the code executes
Number of times to execute
import turtle the code in the loop
for steps in range(3):
turtle.forward(100)
turtle.right(90)
Only the indented code is repeated!

import turtle
for steps in range(4):
turtle.forward(100)
turtle.right(90)
turtle.color('red')
turtle.forward(200)
Now we have new ways to mess up our code!

Can you find three mistakes

in this code?

improt turtle import turtle

for steps in range(4) for steps in range(4):
turtle.forward(100) turtle.forward(100)
turtle.right(90) turtle.right(90)
You can have lots of fun when you put a loop inside
another loop!

import turtle
for steps in range(4):
turtle.forward(100)
turtle.right(90)
for moresteps in range(4):
turtle.forward(50)
turtle.right(90)
Just for fun

import turtle
for steps in range(5):
turtle.forward(100)
turtle.right(360/5)
for moresteps in range(5):
turtle.forward(50)
turtle.right(360/5)
We could use a variable to decide the number of
sides our object will have

import turtle
nbrSides = 6
for steps in range(nbrSides):
turtle.forward(100)
turtle.right(360/nbrSides)
for moresteps in range(nbrSides):
turtle.forward(50)
turtle.right(360/nbrSides)
What’s the advantage of using a variable here instead
of just typing in the number?

import turtle
nbrSides = 6
for steps in range(nbrSides):
turtle.forward(100)
turtle.right(360/nbrSides)
for moresteps in range(nbrSides):
turtle.forward(50)
turtle.right(360/nbrSides)
When we use a variable and we want to change a
value that appears in many places, we only have to
update one line of code!
import turtle
nbrSides = 6
for steps in range(nbrSides):
turtle.forward(100)
turtle.right(360/nbrSides)
for moresteps in range(nbrSides):
turtle.forward(50)
turtle.right(360/nbrSides)
Did you know you can actually look at the values
being used in the loop?

for steps in range(4) :

print(steps)

Yes, counting starts

at zero in for loops,
that’s pretty
common in
programming
If you need to start counting from “1” you can specify
numbers to count to and from

for steps in range(1,4) :

print(steps)

Did you notice this

time the loop only
executed three
times?
You can also tell the loop to skip values by specifying
a step

for steps in range(1,10,2) :

print(steps)
One of the cool things about Python is the way you
can tell it exactly what values you want to use in the
loop
for steps in [1,2,3,4,5] :
print(steps)

This does require []

brackets instead of ()
and you don’t use
the “range” keyword
And you don’t have to use numbers!

import turtle
for steps in ['red','blue','green','black'] :
turtle.color(steps)
turtle.forward(100)
turtle.right(90)

What do you think

this code will do?
You can even mix up different datatypes (e.g.
numbers and strings) but…
import turtle
for steps in ['red','blue','green','black',8] :
turtle.color(steps)
turtle.forward(100)
turtle.right(90)

You had better make

sure any code using
that value can
handle the datatype!
You can’t set the color to a number so the
code crashed, but the print can accept
strings or numbers
for steps in ['red','blue','green','black‘,8] :
print (steps)
While Loops

While loops
For loops allow us to execute code a fixed number of
times

import turtle
for steps in range(4):
turtle.forward(100)
turtle.right(90)
What if we don’t know how exactly how many times
to repeat the code?
• Ask for the names of everyone in a class and print each name
• Keep guessing until you get the right answer
• Read all the values in a file or in a database
While Loops allow you to execute until a particular
condition is true
You have to declare the
variable before you use
it in the loop
answer = "0" Execute the code in the loop over
and over while the variable
answer is not equal to 4
while answer != "4":
answer = input("What is 2 + 2 ")

print ("Yes! 2 + 2 = 4")

Remember only the indented code
is repeated, so this command only
executes after you exit the loop
Can you figure out what this code will do?
import turtle
counter = 0
while counter < 4:
turtle.forward(100)
turtle.right(90)
counter = counter+1

Yes, it will draw a square

While loops can be used instead of for loops
import turtle import turtle
for steps in range(4): counter = 0
turtle.forward(100) while counter < 4:
turtle.right(90) turtle.forward(100)
turtle.right(90)
counter = counter+1

Both loops have the same end result

Can you figure out what this code will do?
import turtle
counter = 0
while counter <= 4:
turtle.forward(100)
turtle.right(90)
counter = counter+1

It will actually draw 5 lines! Not 4!

Can you figure out what this code will do?
import turtle
counter = 1
while counter < 4:
turtle.forward(100)
turtle.right(90)
counter = counter+1

It will draw only 3 lines! Not 4!

How often will this loop execute?
import turtle
counter = 0
while counter < 3:
turtle.forward(100)
turtle.right(90)

Trick question! It will execute forever! Because the value of

counter is never updated! How can counter ever become
greater than 3? This is called an endless loop. Yet another
way to mess up our code
It’s easier to make a mistake with a while loop than a
for loop
• Use for loops whenever possible
Don’t fear the while loop

• There is a time and place to use while loops, in particular they

are really useful when you want to read data until there is no
more data to read.
Sometimes you need to store more than one value

• I want to remember the names of everyone coming to a party

• I want to remember the scores I got in all my courses
Lists allow you to store multiple values

guests = ['Christopher','Susan','Bill','Satya']

scores = [78,85,62,49,98]
You can create an empty list and add values later

guests = []

scores = []
You can reference any value in the list by specifying
it’s position in the list
guests = ['Christopher','Susan','Bill','Satya']

#print the first guest

#the first value is in position 0
print(guests[0])

scores = [78,85,62,49,98]
#Print the fourth score
print(scores[3])
geek tip: We call the position in the list the index
You can count backwards to specify the entry you
want
guests = ['Christopher','Susan','Bill','Satya']

#print the last entry in the list

print(guests[-1])

#print the second last entry in the list

print(guests[-2])
What if you want to change the
list contents?
You can change a value in a list

guests = ['Christopher','Susan','Bill','Satya']
print("first value is " + guests[0])

#change the first value in the list to Steve

guests[0] = 'Steve'
print("first value is now " + guests[0])
You can add a value to a list with append()
guests = ['Christopher','Susan','Bill','Satya']

#add a new value to the end of the list

guests.append('Steve')

#display the last value in the list

print(guests[-1])
You can remove a value from a list with remove()
guests = ['Christopher','Susan','Bill','Satya']

#add a new value to the end of the list

guests.remove('Christopher')

#display the last value in the list

print(guests[0])
You can use the del command to delete an entry

guests = ['Christopher','Susan','Bill','Satya']

#delete the first item in the list

del guests[0]

#print the first item in the list

print(guests[0])
What if I want to check if a
particular value is in the list?
The index() function will search the list and tell you
the position where the value was found

guests = ['Christopher','Susan','Bill','Satya']

#this will return the position in the list

#where the name Bill is found
print(guests.index('Bill'))
What do you think will happen if we search for a
value that doesn’t exist in the list?

guests = ['Christopher','Susan','Bill','Satya']

#this will return the position in the list

#where the name Bill is found
print(guests.index('Steve'))

The code crashes!

We need to add error handling
Or find another way to go through the list and find a value
What if I want to see all the
values in the list?
Use a loop!

guests = ['Christopher','Susan','Bill','Satya']

#Create a loop that executes four times

#Since we have four values
for steps in range(4) :

#Remember the value of steps goes up by one

#Each time the loop executes
print(guests[steps])
What if I don’t know how many
values are in the list?
Use the len() function to find out how many entries
are in your list
guests = ['Christopher','Susan','Bill','Satya']

#Find out how many entries are in the list

nbrEntries = len(guests)

#Create a loop that executes once for each entry

for steps in range(nbrEntries) :
print(guests[steps])
Shhhh, don’t tell anyone but
there is an even easier way to
go through all the items in a list
You can just tell the for loop to go through your list!

guests = ['Christopher','Susan','Bill','Satya']

#specify the name of your list and a variable name

#to hold each entry as you go through the loop
for guest in guests :

#the variable guest will contain the values

#as we go through the loop
print(guest)
Want to sort your list?
You can sort your list with the sort() function

guests = ['Christopher','Susan','Bill','Satya']

#Sort the names in alphabetical order

guests.sort()

#print the list

for guest in guests :
print(guest)
Here’s a programming challenge!

• Ask the user to enter the names of everyone attending a party

• Then return a list of the party guests in alphabetical order
Ask the user to enter the names of everyone
attending a party
• What command do we use to ask a user for a value?
– input function
• What type of variable will we need to store all the names?
– A list
• How can I ask the user for more than one name?
– Use a loop
Should we use a for loop or while loop?

• Do you know how many names the user will enter?

– No, that means we don’t know how many times the loop needs to
execute, so we should use a while loop
• How will the loop know when to stop executing?
– We could have user enter a special keyword when they are done (as
long as we tell them to do it!)
So… something like this?
guests = []
name = " "

while name != "DONE" :

name = input("Enter guest name (enter DONE if no more names) : ")
guests.append(name)

guests.sort()
for guest in guests :
print(guest)

We are close but our code added the

name DONE to our list of guests
How can we tell the program that if the
name is “DONE” not to add it?
Use an if statement! Awesome now we are pulling
everything we learned together!
guests = []
name = " "

while name != "DONE" :

name = input("Enter guest name (enter DONE if no more names) : ")
guests.append(name)

guests.sort()
for guest in guests :
print(guest)

We are close but our code added the

name DONE to our list of guests
How can we tell the program that if the
name is “DONE” not to add it?