function that concatenates two lists python Codecademy - python

I am stucked at ex 18,chapter lists and function from CODECADEMY.
"Create a function called flatten that takes a single list and concatenates all the sublists that are part of it into a single list."
"1 On line 3, define a function called flatten with one argument called lists.
2 Make a new, empty list called results.
3 Iterate through lists. Call the looping variable numbers.
4 Iterate through numbers.
5 For each number, .append() it to results.
6 Finally, return results from your function."
Here is my code:
And the error:
Oops, try again. flatten([[1, 2], [3, 4]]) returned [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 1, 2, 3, 4] instead of [1, 2, 3, 4]
n = [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]]
# Add your function here
results=[]
def flatten(lists):
for numbers in lists:
for number in numbers:
results.append(number)
return results
print flatten(n)
I can't figure out what is wrong.

Your mistake is that you declared the results list globally, while you should have declared it in the scope of your function.
Because results is outside of the function, it doesn't reset when you run flatten() the second time. Instead, the newly flattened array is added on top of the one from the previous run.
You should move results inside your function like so:
def flatten(lists):
results[]
for numbers in lists:
for number in numbers:
results.append(number)
return results
That way it resets every time you run the function and thus returns the correct result.

Convert this:
results=[]
def flatten(lists):
to this:
def flatten(lists):
results=[]

Is you data input wrong?
If you replace you first line of code
n = [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]]
with
n = [[1, 2], [3, 4]].
The output will be
[1, 2, 3, 4]
Also, you should place results=[] inside function def flatten(lists):
def flatten(lists):
results=[]
for numbers in lists:
for number in numbers:
results.append(number)
return results

Related

inserted list changes even after being inserted

I wanted to create a list of lists
def func(m,n,l,t):
a=[i for i in range(m)]
b=[]
b.append(a)
a=swap(a)
b.append(a)
for i in b:
print(i)
def swap(l):
i,n=0,len(l)
while(i<n):
l[i],l[i+1]=l[i+1],l[i]
i+=2
return l
i created list a as my basis and append each modification i want to in the b list.
The problem is after i append the first list and modify it, the first one i inserted also changes the same as the second one i inserted.
the output of this code is this
[1, 0, 3, 2, 5, 4, 7, 6]
[1, 0, 3, 2, 5, 4, 7, 6]
what i want is when i performm the swap i dont want the first list to change
the output should look like this
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
[1, 0, 3, 2, 5, 4, 7, 6]
if you could help, please thank you.
In place of append() method, you can try out extend() method which does the same as of append. but extend() method is mainly used for iterate items, as of in your case.
and also if you want to use only append, then take a copy of your variable first and append it, as you are changing in the first place, it is taking effect in the list too. So you can follow append into a list like, a.copy(). Hopes it helps
Please try out and share the feedback.
Thank you
Their are multiple code error you have done, for example:
you don't have to iterate over range object in order to get list, you could just...
a = list(range(m))
and also You don't have to run a while loop in order to iterate over two steps you could...
for i in range(0, len(l), 2):
see range for reference
also you didn't use any of n, l, t parameters of the func function.
THE ANSWER
when you pass the a variable to the swap function you are actually passing the class Object itself, so the swap function can change the value of the a variable (list class).
All you need is passing a copy of the a variable not the variable itself
a = swap(a.copy())
FINAL CODE
def swap(l):
for i in range(0, len(l), 2):
l[i],l[i+1]=l[i+1],l[i]
return l
def func(m):
a = list(range(m))
b = [a]
a = swap(a.copy())
b.append(a)
for i in b:
print(i)
func(8) # [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7], [1, 0, 3, 2, 5, 4, 7, 6]

What to do if a variable is in the for loop statement?

I'm just wondering what would happen if a variable is the for loop (or while loop) statement. Will that variable only be evaluated the first time that statement is executed?
For example:
arr = [2, 3, 4]
for i in range(len(arr)):
arr.append(5)
Yes. Try it:
>>> arr = [2, 3, 4]
>>>
>>> for i in range(len(arr)):
... arr.append(5)
...
>>> arr
[2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5]
As you can see, the loop has 3 iterations, because that's the value of len(arr) at the start of the loop.
This is the exact reason that it's generally discouraged to modify a list (or any other iterable) as you're iterating over it; the results may not always be intuitive since the iterator is set up at the start of the loop, and modifying the list may cause it to behave in unexpected ways (skipping over items, etc).
Will that variable only be evaluated the first time that statement is
executed?
Yes, if I understand your question correctly, the expression in the header of the for loop is only evaluated once. You can verify this by creating your own function that prints a message then returns the length of the array.
def my_fun(my_list):
print("Inside my function.")
return len(my_list)
arr = [2, 3, 4]
for i in range(my_fun(arr)):
arr.append(5)
print(arr)
Output:
Inside my function.
[2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5]
As you can see, the message is only printed one time, so range(my_fun(arr)) must only be evaluated one time.
The code here is equivalent to :
arr = [2, 3, 4]
r = range(len(arr))
for i in r:
arr.append(5)
print(arr)
Here the call to the range function generates a new object of type range (https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#typesseq-range). The iteration through the for loop is therefore on the object r, and not on the object arr. The modification in the loop of arr has therefore no consequences on the loop itself, since this one is on the object r.
On the other hand, if we try the following code :
arr = [2, 3, 4]
for i in arr:
arr.append(5)
if len(arr) > 15:
break
print(arr)
We get the following result:
[2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5]
Here the for loop is applied directly on arr, and so its modification does impact the iteration performed by the for.

How to append values to list?

I want to append my list with values for each loop iteration:
for i in range (4,10):
a_list = [1,2,3]
a_list = a_list.append(i)
The wanted output would be [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. But I get None. Also printing type(a_list) after using .append() gives me <class'NoneType'>. What is the problem here ?
firstly, you have to mention a_list before for. instead, you will get [1, 2, 3, 9]. secondly, you give the a_list a value of a_list.append() function.
a_list = [1, 2, 3]
for i in range(4, 10):
a_list.append(i)
it is mainly because of the fact that list.append method does not return anything, it appends the given value to the list in-place.
we can confirm this by the simple example below
a = list()
b = a.append(5)
>> print(b)
None
>> print(a)
[5]
As matter of fact,there is a simpler and more performant way to achieve this
>> a_list = [1,2,3]
>> a_list += list(range(4, 10))
>> print(a_list)
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
Here, we first shape a new list from a iterator range(4, 10),
then we concate the two list together to get the list we want by adding the new list to the original list a_list.
by doing this, we can avoid the overhead caused by repeatedly call the list.append method in a for loop
a_list = []
for i in range (1,10):
a_list.append(i)
print(a_list)
Output
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
You have the wrong indentation on the loop.You need to add i at each iteration. Also, to get the list you want, you need to add 1, then 2, then 3, and so on. i this is what needs to be added. Put print(i) and print each iteration.
a_list = [1,2,3]
for i in range (4,10):
a_list.append(i)
print(a_list)
If you use your option, it will be correct to declare an array once. And then only add values. See below.
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

Python functions parameter

why append method works on original numbers list and it changed numbers list but I can't reassign numbers list to [4,5,6]?
def change(numbers_list):
numbers_list.append(4)
numbers_list = [4,5,6]
numbers = [1,2,3]
change(numbers)
print(numbers)
when code runs this printed:
[1,2,3,4]
why not [4,5,6]?
The function of append is to add an item to an existing list. The reason for no effect is that you are doing many invalid things. For one you are calling the function but never assigning the return to a variable. Second your use of append is void because directly after you declare numbers_list = [4, 5, 6]. If you goal of the function is just to change [1, 2, 3] to [4, 5, 6] the setup would be this.
def change(numbers_list):
numbers_list = [4,5,6]
return numbers_list
numbers = [1,2,3]
numbers = change(numbers)
print(numbers)
# [4, 5, 6]
Although this would suffice
numbers = [1, 2, 3]
numbers = [4, 5, 6]
print(numbers)
# [4, 5, 6]

python index error: 2 lists that are inside a list

def main():
L=[]
list1=[5,1,3]
list2=[4,6,2]
L.append(list1)
L.append(list2)
f(L)
def f(L):
for i in range(6)
print L[i]
IndexError: list index out of range
You're just appending the lists onto L so you get something like [[5, 1, 3], [4, 6, 2]]. You need to use extend like so:
L.extend(list1)
L.extend(list2)
print L # [5, 1, 3, 4, 6, 2]
Appending two items to an empty list makes a 2-element list. Perhaps you wanted L.extend() instead?

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