Python I
Some material adapted
from Upenn cmpe391
slides and other sources
Overview
Data types
Sequences types: Lists, Tuples, and
Strings
Mutability
Understanding Reference Semantics in
Python
Basic Datatypes
Integers (default for numbers)
z = 5 / 2 # Answer 2, integer division
Floats
x = 3.456
Strings
• Can use ”…" or ’…’ to specify, "foo" == 'foo’
• Unmatched can occur within the string
“ John’ s” or ‘ John said “ foo!” .’
• Use triple double-quotes for multi-line strings or
strings than contain both ‘ and “ inside of them:
“““a‘ b“ c”””
Python’s data types
Everything is an object
Python data is represented by objects or by
relations between objects
Every object has an identity, a type and a value
Identity never changes once created Location
or address in memory
Type (e.g., integer, list) is unchangeable and
determines the possible values it could have
and operations that can be applied
Value of some objects is fixed (e.g., an integer)
and can change for others (e.g., list)
Python’s built-in type hierarchy
Sequence types:
Tuples, Lists, and
Strings
Sequence Types
Sequences are containers that hold objects
Finite, ordered, indexed by integers
Tuple: (1, “a”, [100], “foo”)
An immutable ordered sequence of items
Items can be of mixed types, including collection types
Strings: “foo bar”
An immutable ordered sequence of chars
• Conceptually very much like a tuple
List: [“one”, “two”, 3]
A Mutable ordered sequence of items of mixed types
Similar Syntax
All three sequence types (tuples,
strings, and lists) share much of the
same syntax and functionality.
Key difference:
• Tuples and strings are immutable
• Lists are mutable
The operations shown in this section
can be applied to all sequence types
• most examples will just show the
operation performed on one
Sequence Types 1
Define tuples using parentheses and commas
>>> tu = (23, ‘abc’, 4.56, (2,3), ‘def’)
Define lists are using square brackets and
commas
>>> li = [“abc”, 34, 4.34, 23]
Define strings using quotes (“, ‘, or “””).
>>> st = “Hello World”
>>> st = ‘Hello World’
>>> st = “””This is a multi-line
string that uses triple quotes.”””
Sequence Types 2
Access individual members of a tuple, list, or
string using square bracket “array” notation
Note that all are 0 based…
>>> tu = (23, ‘abc’, 4.56, (2,3), ‘def’)
>>> tu[1] # Second item in the tuple.
‘ abc’
>>> li = [“abc”, 34, 4.34, 23]
>>> li[1] # Second item in the list.
34
>>> st = “ Hello World”
>>> st[1] # Second character in string.
‘e’
Positive and negative indices
>>> t = (23, ‘abc’, 4.56, (2,3), ‘def’)
Positive index: count from the left, starting with 0
>>> t[1]
‘abc’
Negative index: count from right, starting with –1
>>> t[-3]
4.56
Slicing: Return Copy of a Subset
>>> t = (23, ‘abc’, 4.56, (2,3), ‘def’)
Returns copy of container with subset of original
members. Start copying at first index, and stop
copying before the second index
>>> t[1:4]
(‘abc’, 4.56, (2,3))
You can also use negative indices
>>> t[1:-1]
(‘abc’, 4.56, (2,3))
Slicing: Return Copy of a Subset
>>> t = (23, ‘abc’, 4.56, (2,3), ‘def’)
Omit first index to make a copy starting from the
beginning of container
>>> t[:2]
(23, ‘abc’)
Omit second index to make a copy starting at
1st index and going to end of the container
>>> t[2:]
(4.56, (2,3), ‘def’)
Copying the Whole Sequence
[ : ] makes a copy of an entire sequence
>>> t[:]
(23, ‘abc’, 4.56, (2,3), ‘def’)
Note the difference between these two lines
for mutable sequences
>>> l2 = l1 # Both refer to same ref,
# changing one affects both
>>> l2 = l1[:] # Independent copies, two
refs
The ‘in’ Operator
Boolean test whether a value is inside a container:
>>> t = [1, 2, 4, 5]
>>> 3 in t
False
>>> 4 in t
True
>>> 4 not in t
False
For strings, tests for substrings
>>> a = 'abcde'
>>> 'c' in a
True
>>> 'cd' in a
True
>>> 'ac' in a
False
Careful: the in keyword is also used in the syntax of
for loops and list comprehensions
+ Operator is Concatenation
The + operator produces a new tuple, list, or
string whose value is the concatenation of its
arguments.
>>> (1, 2, 3) + (4, 5, 6)
(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
>>> [1, 2, 3] + [4, 5, 6]
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
>>> “Hello” + “ “ + “World”
‘ Hello World’
Mutability:
Tuples vs. Lists
Lists are mutable
>>> li = [‘abc’, 23, 4.34, 23]
>>> li[1] = 45
>>> li
[‘ abc’ , 45, 4.34, 23]
We can change lists in place.
Name li still points to the same memory
reference when we’re done.
Tuples are immutable
>>> t = (23, ‘abc’, 4.56, (2,3), ‘def’)
>>> t[2] = 3.14
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<pyshell#75>", line 1, in -toplevel-
tu[2] = 3.14
TypeError: object doesn't support item assignment
You can’t change a tuple.
You can make a fresh tuple and assign its
reference to a previously used name.
>>> t = (23, ‘abc’, 3.14, (2,3), ‘def’)
The immutability of tuples means they are
faster than lists
Functions vs. methods
Some operations are functions and others methods
• Remember that (almost) everything is an object
• You just have to learn (and remember or lookup) which
operations are functions and which are methods
len() is a function on collec- index() is a method on col-
tions that returns the num- lections that returns the
ber of things they contain index of the 1st occurrence
of its arg
>>> len(['a', 'b', 'c'])
3 >>> ['a’,'b’,'c'].index('a')
>>> len(('a','b','c')) 0
3 >>> ('a','b','c').index('b')
>>> len("abc") 1
3 >>> "abc".index('c')
2
Lists methods
Lists have many methods, including index,
count, append, remove, reverse, sort, etc.
Many of these modify the list
>>> l = [1,3,4]
>>> l.append(0) # adds a new element to the end of the list
>>> l
[1, 3, 4, 0]
>>> l.insert(1,200) # insert 200 just before index position 1
>>> l
[1, 200, 3, 4, 0]
>>> l.reverse() # reverse the list in place
>>> l
[0, 4, 3, 200, 1]
>>> l.sort() # sort the elements. Optional arguments can give
>>> l # the sorting function and direction
[0, 1, 3, 4, 200]
>>> l.remove(3) # remove first occurence of element from list
>>> l
[0, 1, 4, 200]
Tuple details
The comma is the tuple creation operator, not parens
>>> 1,
(1,)
Python shows parens for clarity (best practice)
>>> (1,)
(1,)
Don't forget the comma!
>>> (1)
1
Trailing comma only required for singletons others
Empty tuples have a special syntactic form
>>> ()
()
>>> tuple()
()
Tuples vs. Lists
Lists slower but more powerful than tuples
• Lists can be modified and they have many handy
operations and methods
Tuples are immutable & have fewer features
• Sometimes an immutable collection is required (e.g.,
as a hash key)
• Tuples used for multiple return values and parallel
assignments
x,y,z = 100,200,300
old,new = new,old
Convert tuples and lists using list() and tuple():
mylst = list(mytup); mytup = tuple(mylst)
