Lists
The first of the containers we will study
Containers hold stuff
Lists are a specific kind of container
- Ordered
- Heterogeneous
- Grow to what you need
Order
- Index positions give elements addresses
- They start at zero.
- It kind of makes sense. Eventually.
- You can ask for elements by their address
Heterogeneous
- You can put whatever you want in
- No, seriously.
- Anything.
- Even more lists.
Size
- Lists will grow as you add things to them
- They can also be empty
Python is very different
Most languages are very strict about collections and arrays. Python is incredibly lenient.
How do I list?
mylist = []
Lists are contained in []
You add things to lists via append:
mylist.append(something)
https://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/datastructures.html
Spend some time with the docs
Future you will thank you
List comprehensions
You will see them around.
You will be confused.
Eventually you will use them.
But don't worry about that until later.
>>> name = "Elizabeth"
>>> [letter.upper() for letter in name]
['E', 'L', 'I', 'Z', 'A', 'B', 'E', 'T', 'H']