Summary

In this lab, we introduced several major important topics in Python. Let’s quickly review them.

Python Lists

Lists in Python allow us to store multiple elements in a single variable, with each element identified by a unique index within the list.

Lists can be created using square brackets []:

list_a = []
list_b = [5, 3, 7]

Adding and Accessing List Items

New elements can be added to a list using the append() method:

list_a = []
list_a.append(4)

Items in a list can be accessed and updated using square brackets:

list_b = [5, 3, 7]
list_b[2] = list_b[0] + list_b[1]

Loops with Lists

Lists can be iterated using both for loops and while loops:

list_b = [5, 3, 7]

for i in list_b:
    print(i)

j = 0
while j < len(list_b)
    print(list_b[j])
    j = j + 1

Lists should not be changed while iterating using a for loop.

Functions with Lists

When calling a function that accepts a list as a parameter, the argument is passed using call by reference instead of call by value. The original list can be modified by the function, but it cannot be replaced with a new list unless the reference to that new list is returned from the function.

Strings as Lists

Strings can be iterated just like a list, and we can use square brackets to access individual characters in a string. However, lists are still passed as call by value when provided as an argument to a function.

Slicing

We can create a slice of a list by specifying a start, end and step value separated by colons. The values may be omitted, and may also be negative.

list_b = [5, 3, 7]
print(list_b[-1])
print(list_b[0:1])
print(list_b[0:2:2])
print(list_b[::-1])