bhaaluu wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> I'm also a beginner to Python, but I think I can answer
> your question. One of the best ways to learn about how
> anything in Python works is to use the Python interactive
> interpreter, so, away we go (follow along, please):
>
>>>> names = ['anne', 'beth', 'george', 'damon']
>>>> print names
> ['anne', 'beth', 'george', 'damon']
>>>> print len(names)
> 4
>>>> print names[0]
> anne
>>>> print names[3]
> damon
>
> 1. names is a 'list' which contains four elements
> 2. The elements in a list are indexed starting with zero (0)
> 3. So the 'for' loop is iterating the length of the names list len(names)
> which is the same as saying: for i in range(4):
>
> So len() isn't just for counting characters! It's count will depend
> on what 'type' it is counting. In the above case, it is counting elements
> in a 'list'.
>
>>>> print len(names[2])
> 6
>
> names[2] is: g e o r g e
> 6 characters.
> Why?
>
>>>> print type(names[2])
> <type 'str'>
>
> george is a string, so len() counts the characters in the string.
>
> I hope this is helpful.
That aside. It would have been better style to write :
for person, age in zip(names, ages):
print person, 'is', age, 'years old'
zip takes two lists and combines them in a list of tuples which you
assign one by one to person and age in the for.
I guess he does it the way it is because he hasn't come to explain zip()
yet.
HTH
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