Added a file for Lists and Tuples session.
authorMadhusudan.C.S <madhusudancs@gmail.com>
Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:21:45 +0530
changeset 4 000a414fc3b7
parent 3 f095fc984608
child 5 dbc118349011
Added a file for Lists and Tuples session.
basic_python/list_tuples.rst
--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/basic_python/list_tuples.rst	Thu Aug 20 04:21:45 2009 +0530
@@ -0,0 +1,193 @@
+Lists and Tuples
+================
+
+Python provides an intuitive way to represent a group items, called *Lists*. The
+items of a *List* are called its elements. Unlike C/C++, elements can be of any
+type. A *List* is represented as a list of comma-sepated elements with paren-
+thesis around them::
+
+  >>> a = [10, 'Python programming', 20.3523, 23, 3534534L]
+  >>> a
+  [10, 'Python programming', 20.3523, 23, 3534534L]
+
+
+Common List Operations
+----------------------
+
+
+Indexing
+~~~~~~~~
+
+Individual elements of a *List* can be accessed using an index to the element.
+The indices start at 0. One can also access the elements of the *List* in reverse
+using negative indices.::
+
+  >>> a[1]
+  'Python programming'
+  >>> a[-1]
+  3534534L
+
+It is important to note here that the last element of the *List* has an index of
+-1.
+
+
+Concatenating
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Two or more *Lists* can be concatenated using the + operator::
+
+  >>> a + ['foo', 12, 23.3432, 54]
+  [10, 'Python programming', 20.3523, 'foo', 12, 23.3432, 54]
+  >>> [54, 75, 23] + ['write', 67, 'read']
+  [54, 75, 23, 'write', 67, 'read']
+  
+
+Slicing
+~~~~~~~
+
+A *List* can be sliced off to contain a subset of elements of the *List*. Slicing
+can be done by using two indices separated by a colon, where the first index is
+inclusive and the second index is exclusive. The resulting slice is also a *List*.::
+
+  >>> num = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
+  >>> num[3:6]
+  [4, 5, 6]
+  >>> num[0:1]
+  [1]
+  >>> num[7:10]
+  [7, 8, 9]
+
+The last example showed how to access last 3 elements of the *List*. There is a 
+small catch here. The second index 10 actually refers to the 11th element of the
+*List* which is still valid, even though it doesn't exist because the second 
+index is exclusive and tells the Python interpreter to get the last element of
+the *List*. But this can also be done in a much easier way using negative indices::
+
+  >>> num[-3:-1]
+  [7, 8, 9]
+
+Excluding the first index implies that the slice must start at the beginning of 
+the *List*, while excluding the second index includes all the elements till the
+end of the *List*. A third parameter to a slice, which is implicitly taken as 1
+is the step of the slice. It is specified as a value which follows a colon after
+the second index::
+
+  >>> num[:4]
+  [1, 2, 3, 4]
+  >>> num[7:]
+  [8, 9]
+  >>> num[-3:]
+  [7, 8, 9]
+  >>> num[:]
+  [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
+  >>> num[4:9:3]
+  [5, 8]
+  >>> num[3::2]
+  [4, 6, 8]
+  >>> num[::4]
+  [1, 5, 9]
+
+
+Multiplication
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+A *List* can be multiplied with an integer to repeat itself::
+
+  >>> [20] * 5
+  [20, 20, 20, 20, 20]
+  >>> [42, 'Python', 54] * 3
+  [42, 'Python', 54, 42, 'Python', 54, 42, 'Python', 54]
+
+
+Membership
+~~~~~~~~~~
+
+**in** operator is used to find whether an element is part of the *List*. It
+returns **True** if the element is present in the *List* or **False** if it is not 
+present. Since this operator returns a Boolean value it is called a Boolean
+operator::
+
+  >>> names = ['Guido', 'Alex', 'Tim']
+  >>> 'Tim' in names
+  True
+  >>> 'Adam' in names
+  False
+
+
+Length, Maximum and Minimum
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Length of a *List* can be found out using the len function. The max function
+returns the element with the largest value and the min function returns the 
+element with the smallest value::
+
+  >>> num = [4, 1, 32, 12, 67, 34, 65]
+  >>> len(num)
+  7
+  >>> max(num)
+  67
+  >>> min(num)
+  1
+
+
+Changing Elements
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Unlike Strings *Lists* are mutable, i.e. elements of a *List* can be manipulated::
+
+  >>> a = [1, 3, 5, 7]
+  >>> a[2] = 9
+  >>> a
+  [1, 3, 9, 7]
+
+
+Deleting Elements
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+An element or a slice of a *List* can be deleted by using the **del** statement::
+
+  >>> a = [1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11]
+  >>> del a[-2:]
+  >>> a
+  [1, 3, 5, 7]
+  >>> del a[1]
+  >>> a
+  [1, 5, 7]
+
+
+Assign to Slices
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+In the same way, values can be assigned to individual elements of the *List*, 
+a *List* of elements can be assigned to a slice::
+
+  >>> a = [2, 3, 4, 5]
+  >>> a[:2] = [0, 1]
+  [0, 1, 4, 5]
+  >>> a[2:2] = [2, 3]
+  >>> a
+  [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
+  >>> a[2:4] = []
+  >>> a
+  [0, 1, 4, 5]
+
+The last two examples should be particularly noted carefully. The last but one
+example insert elements or a list of elements into a *List* and the last example
+deletes a list of elements from the *List*.
+
+
+None, Empty Lists, and Initialization
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+An *Empty List* is a *List* with no elements and is simply represented as
+[]. A *None List* is one with all elements in it being **None**. It serves
+the purpose having a container list of some fixed number of elements with
+no value::
+
+  >>> a = []
+  >>> a
+  []
+  >>> n = [None] * 10
+  >>> n
+  [None, None, None, None, None, None, None, None, None, None]
+