Programming

Even outside of programming, people perform list reversal regularly, for example, to re-order eBay items from high to low then low to high. It is a handy operation, and Python provides several ways to accomplish it. Method 1: Using the built-in reverse() function This method has the advantage of being simple and easy to understand when using someone else’s code. For example, if we have stored our list in “staffNames”: staffNames = [“Abigail”, “Chris”, “Denise”, “Fred”] staffNames.reverse() When executed, this method doesn’t automatically give a … Read more

Python offers several different types of arrays for storing data. Lists are arrays which allow you to store items. These list items can be altered, and are stored in a specific order. There are several methods you should consider for searching a list in Python– searching for a specific value match, or searching for list items that match a certain condition or set of conditions. You can also remove items from a list in Python. Checking if a List Contains an Item Using the ‘in’ … Read more

Let’s look at two ways you can concatenate (which is a fancy word for join or merge) two or more strings in Python. It’s also worth checking out our article on converting integers to strings in Python. A Note On Immutable Strings Strings in Python are immutable and cannot be changed once defined. This means that whenever you join two strings, a new string is created (ie. the original is not modified!). This has both performance side effects and affects how you should structure your code: … Read more

Every programming language has special characters that trigger certain behaviors in your code – and Python is no exception. These characters cannot be used in strings (as they are reserved for use in your code) – and must be “escaped” to tell the computer that the character should just be treated as a regular piece of text rather than something that needs to be considered while the code is being executed. If you want to be able to leave yourself notes in your code, check … Read more