Python Programming/Loops

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1 Count to 10
- 1.1 While loops
- 1.2 Examples
2 For Loops
- 2.1 Exercises

[edit] Count to 10

[edit] While loops

Presenting our first control structure. Ordinarily the computer starts with the first line and then goes down from there. Control structures change the order that statements are executed or decide if a certain statement will be run. Here's the source for a program that uses the while control structure:

a = 0
while a < 10 :
    a = a + 1
    print a

And here is the extremely exciting output:

(And you thought it couldn't get any worse after turning your computer into a five dollar calculator?) So what does the program do? First it sees the line a = 0 and makes a zero. Then it sees while a < 10: and so the computer checks to see if a < 10. The first time the computer sees this statement a is zero so it is less than 10. In other words while a is less than ten the computer will run the tabbed in statements.

Here is another example of the use of while:

a = 1
s = 0
print 'Enter Numbers to add to the sum.'
print 'Enter 0 to quit.'
while a != 0:
    print 'Current Sum: %d' % s
    a = raw_input('Number? ')
    a = int(a)
    s = s + a
print 'Total Sum = %d' % s

Enter Numbers to add to the sum.
Enter 0 to quit.
Current Sum: 0
Number? 200
Current Sum: 200
Number? -15.25
Current Sum: 184.75
Number? -151.85
Current Sum: 32.9
Number? 10.00
Current Sum: 42.9
Number? 0
Total Sum = 42.9

Notice how print 'Total Sum =',s is only run at the end. The while statement only affects the lines that are tabbed in (a.k.a. indented). The != means does not equal so while a != 0 : means until a is zero run the tabbed in statements that are afterwards.

Now that we have while loops, it is possible to have programs that run forever. An easy way to do this is to write a program like this:

while 1 == 1:
    print "Help, I'm stuck in a loop."

This program will output Help, I'm stuck in a loop. until the heat death of the universe or you stop it. The way to stop it is to hit the Control (or Ctrl) button and `c' (the letter) at the same time. This will kill the program. (Note: sometimes you will have to hit enter after the Control C.)

[edit] Examples

Fibonacci.py

#This program calculates the Fibonacci sequence
a = 0
b = 1
count = 0
max_count = 20
while count < max_count:
    count = count + 1
    #we need to keep track of a since we change it
    old_a = a
    old_b = b
    a = old_b
    b = old_a + old_b
    #Notice that the , at the end of a print statement keeps it
    # from switching to a new line
    print old_a,
print

Output:

0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377 610 987 1597 2584 4181

Password.py

# Waits until a password has been entered.  Use control-C to break out with out
# the password
 
#Note that this must not be the password so that the 
# while loop runs at least once.
password = "foobar"
 
#note that != means not equal
while password != "unicorn":
    password = raw_input("Password: ")
print "Welcome in"

Sample run:

Password:auo
Password:y22
Password:password
Password:open sesame
Password:unicorn
Welcome in

[edit] For Loops

And here is the new typing exercise for this chapter:

onetoten = range(1,11)
for count in onetoten:
    print count

and the ever-present output:

The output looks awfully familiar but the program code looks different. The first line uses the range function. The range function uses two arguments like this range(start,finish). start is the first number that is produced. finish is one larger than the last number. Note that this program could have been done in a shorter way:

for count in range(1,11):
    print count

Here are some examples to show what happens with the range command:

>>> range(1,10)
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
>>> range(-32, -20)
[-32, -31, -30, -29, -28, -27, -26, -25, -24, -23, -22, -21]
>>> range(5,21)
[5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]
>>> range(21,5)
[]

The next line for count in onetoten: uses the for control structure. A for control structure looks like for variable in list:. list is gone through starting with the first element of the list and going to the last. As for goes through each element in a list it puts each into variable. That allows variable to be used in each successive time the for loop is run through. Here is another example (you don't have to type this) to demonstrate:

demolist = ['life',42, 'the universe', 6,'and',7,'everything']
for item in demolist:
    print "The Current item is: %s" % item

The output is:

The Current item is: life
The Current item is: 42
The Current item is: the universe
The Current item is: 6
The Current item is: and
The Current item is: 7
The Current item is: everything

Notice how the for loop goes through and sets item to each element in the list. (Notice how if you don't want print to go to the next line add a comma at the end of the statement (i.e. if you want to print something else on that line). ) So, what is for good for? (groan) The first use is to go through all the elements of a list and do something with each of them. Here a quick way to add up all the elements:

list = [2,4,6,8]
sum = 0
for num in list:
    sum = sum + num
print "The sum is: %d" % sum

with the output simply being:

The sum is:  20

Or you could write a program to find out if there are any duplicates in a list like this program does:

list = [4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 1,0,7,10]
list.sort()
prev = list[0]
del list[0]
for item in list:
    if prev == item:
        print "Duplicate of ",prev," Found"
    prev = item

and for good measure:

Duplicate of  7  Found

Okay, so how does it work? Here is a special debugging version to help you understand (you don't need to type this in):

l = [4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 1,0,7,10]
print "l = [4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 1,0,7,10]","\tl:",l
l.sort()
print "l.sort()","\tl:",l
prev = l[0]
print "prev = l[0]","\tprev:",prev
del l[0]
print "del l[0]","\tl:",l
for item in l:
    if prev == item:
        print "Duplicate of ",prev," Found"
    print "if prev == item:","\tprev:",prev,"\titem:",item
    prev = item
    print "prev = item","\t\tprev:",prev,"\titem:",item

with the output being:

l = [4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 1,0,7,10]   l: [4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 1, 0, 7, 10]
l.sort()        l: [0, 1, 4, 5, 7, 7, 8, 9, 10]
prev = l[0]     prev: 0
del l[0]        l: [1, 4, 5, 7, 7, 8, 9, 10]
if prev == item:        prev: 0         item: 1
prev = item             prev: 1         item: 1
if prev == item:        prev: 1         item: 4
prev = item             prev: 4         item: 4
if prev == item:        prev: 4         item: 5
prev = item             prev: 5         item: 5
if prev == item:        prev: 5         item: 7
prev = item             prev: 7         item: 7
Duplicate of  7  Found
if prev == item:        prev: 7         item: 7
prev = item             prev: 7         item: 7
if prev == item:        prev: 7         item: 8
prev = item             prev: 8         item: 8
if prev == item:        prev: 8         item: 9
prev = item             prev: 9         item: 9
if prev == item:        prev: 9         item: 10
prev = item             prev: 10        item: 10

The reason I put so many print statements in the code was so that you can see what is happening in each line. (BTW, if you can't figure out why a program is not working, try putting in lots of print statements to you can see what is happening) First the program starts with a boring old list. Next the program sorts the list. This is so that any duplicates get put next to each other. The program then initializes a prev(ious) variable. Next the first element of the list is deleted so that the first item is not incorrectly thought to be a duplicate. Next a for loop is gone into. Each item of the list is checked to see if it is the same as the previous. If it is a duplicate was found. The value of prev is then changed so that the next time the for loop is run through prev is the previous item to the current. Sure enough, the 7 is found to be a duplicate. (Notice how \t is used to print a tab.)

The other way to use for loops is to do something a certain number of times. Here is some code to print out the first 9 numbers of the Fibonacci series:

a = 1
b = 1
for c in range(1,10):
    print a
    n = a + b
    a = b
    b = n
print ""

with the surprising output:

1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34

Everything that can be done with for loops can also be done with while loops but for loops give a easy way to go through all the elements in a list or to do something a certain number of times.