STRINGS, INPUT/OUTPUT,

and BRANCHING
(download slides and .py files to follow along)
6.100L Lecture 2
Ana Bell

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 pi = 3.14 3.14
RECAP radius = 2.2
pi
2.2
area = pi*(radius**2)
radius
area 3.2
radius = radius+1

15.1976
var = type(5*4) var int
 Objects
 Objects in memory have types.
 Types tell Python what operations you can do with the objects.
 Expressions evaluate to one value and involve objects and operations.
 Variables bind names to objects.
 = sign is an assignment, for ex. var = type(5*4)

 Programs
 Programs only do what you tell them to do.
 Lines of code are executed in order.
 Good variable names and comments help you read code later.
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6.100L Lecture 2 2
STRINGS

6.100L Lecture 2 3
STRINGS

 Think of a str as a sequence of case sensitive characters

 Letters, special characters, spaces, digits
 Enclose in quotation marks or single quotes
 Just be consistent about the quotes
a = "me"
z = 'you'
 Concatenate and repeat strings
b = "myself" a "me"
c = a + b
d = a + " " + b b "myself"

silly = a * 3 c "memyself"

d "me myself"

silly "mememe"

6.100L Lecture 2 4
YOU TRY IT!
What’s the value of s1 and s2?
 b = ":"
c = ")"
s1 = b + 2*c
 f = "a"
g = " b"
h = "3"
s2 = (f+g)*int(h)

6.100L Lecture 2 5
STRING OPERATIONS

 len() is a function used to retrieve the length of a string in

the parentheses

s = "abc"
len(s)  evaluates to 3
chars = len(s)

6.100L Lecture 2 7
SLICING to get
ONE CHARACTER IN A STRING
 Square brackets used to perform indexing
into a string to get the value at a certain
index/position
s = "abc"
index:
index:
0 1 2  indexing always starts at 0
-3 -2 -1  index of last element is len(s) - 1 or -1
s[0]  evaluates to "a"
s[1]  evaluates to "b"
s[2]  evaluates to "c"
s[3]  trying to index out of
bounds, error
s[-1]  evaluates to "c"
s[-2]  evaluates to "b"
s[-3]  evaluates to "a"
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6.100L Lecture 2 8
SLICING to get a SUBSTRING

 Can slice strings using [start:stop:step]

 Get characters at start
up to and including stop-1
taking every step characters

 If give two numbers, [start:stop], step=1 by default

 If give one number, you are back to indexing for the character
at one location (prev slide)
 You can also omit numbers and leave just colons (try this out!)

6.100L Lecture 2 9
SLICING EXAMPLES

 Can slice strings using [start:stop:step]

 Look at step first. +ve means go left-to-right
-ve means go right-to-left

s = "abcdefgh"
index: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
index: -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1

s[3:6]  evaluates to "def", same as s[3:6:1]

s[3:6:2]  evaluates to "df"
s[:]  evaluates to "abcdefgh", same as s[0:len(s):1]
s[::-1]  evaluates to "hgfedcba"
s[4:1:-2] evaluates to "ec"

6.100L Lecture 2 10
YOU TRY IT!
s = "ABC d3f ghi"

s[3:len(s)-1]
s[4:0:-1]
s[6:3]

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6.100L Lecture 2 11
IMMUTABLE STRINGS

 Strings are “immutable” – cannot be modified

 You can create new objects that are versions of the original one
 Variable name can only be bound to one object
s = "car"
s[0] = 'b'  gives an error
s = 'b'+s[1:len(s)]  is allowed,
s bound to new object
"car"

"bar"

s
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6.100L Lecture 2 12
 BIG IDEA
If you are wondering
“what happens if”…
Just try it out in the console!

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6.100L Lecture 2 13
INPUT/OUTPUT

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6.100L Lecture 2 14
PRINTING

 Used to output stuff to console

In [11]: 3+2
Out[11]: 5
 Command is print
In [12]: print(3+2)
5
 Printing many objects in the same command
 Separate objects using commas to output them separated by spaces
 Concatenate strings together using + to print as single object
 a = "the"
b = 3
c = "musketeers"
print(a, b, c)
print(a + str(b) + c)
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6.100L Lecture 2 15
INPUT
 x = input(s)
 Prints the value of the string s
 User types in something and hits enter
 That value is assigned to the variable x
 Binds that value to a variable
text = input("Type anything: ")
print(5*text)

SHELL:

Type anything:

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6.100L Lecture 2 17
INPUT
 x = input(s)
 Prints the value of the string s
 User types in something and hits enter
 That value is assigned to the variable x
 Binds that value to a variable
text = input("Type anything: ")
print(5*text)

SHELL:

Type anything: howdy

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6.100L Lecture 2 18
INPUT
 x = input(s)
 Prints the value of the string s
 User types in something and hits enter
 That value is assigned to the variable x
 Binds that value to a variable
text = input("Type anything: ")
print(5*text)

SHELL:

"howdy" Type anything: howdy

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6.100L Lecture 2 19
INPUT
 x = input(s)
 Prints the value of the string s
 User types in something and hits enter
 That value is assigned to the variable x
 Binds that value to a variable
text = input("Type anything: ")
print(5*text)

SHELL:

text "howdy" Type anything: howdy

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6.100L Lecture 2 20
INPUT
 x = input(s)
 Prints the value of the string s
 User types in something and hits enter
 That value is assigned to the variable x
 Binds that value to a variable
text = input("Type anything: ")
print(5*text)

SHELL:

text "howdy" Type anything: howdy

howdyhowdyhowdyhowdyhowdy

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6.100L Lecture 2 21
INPUT
 input always returns an str, must cast if working with numbers
num1 = input("Type a number: ")
print(5*num1)
num2 = int(input("Type a number: "))
print(5*num2)

SHELL:
num1 "3"
Type a number: 3

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6.100L Lecture 2 22
INPUT
 input always returns an str, must cast if working with numbers
num1 = input("Type a number: ")
print(5*num1)
num2 = int(input("Type a number: "))
print(5*num2)

SHELL:
num1 "3"
Type a number: 3
33333

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6.100L Lecture 2 23
INPUT
 input always returns an str, must cast if working with numbers
num1 = input("Type a number: ")
print(5*num1)
num2 = int(input("Type a number: "))
print(5*num2)

SHELL:
num1 "3"
Type a number: 3
33333
Type a number: 3

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6.100L Lecture 2 24
INPUT
 input always returns an str, must cast if working with numbers
num1 = input("Type a number: ")
print(5*num1)
num2 = int(input("Type a number: "))
print(5*num2)

SHELL:
num1 "3"
Type a number: 3
33333
num2 3
Type a number: 3

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6.100L Lecture 2 25
INPUT
 input always returns an str, must cast if working with numbers
num1 = input("Type a number: ")
print(5*num1)
num2 = int(input("Type a number: "))
print(5*num2)

SHELL:
num1 "3"
Type a number: 3
33333
num2 3
Type a number: 3
15

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6.100L Lecture 2 26
YOU TRY IT!
 Write a program that
 Asks the user for a verb
 Prints “I can _ better than you” where you replace _ with the verb.
 Then prints the verb 5 times in a row separated by spaces.
 For example, if the user enters run, you print:
I can run better than you!
run run run run run

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6.100L Lecture 2 27
AN IMPORTANT ALGORITHM:
NEWTON’S METHOD
 Finds roots of a polynomial
 E.g., find g such that f(g, x) = g3 – x = 0
 Algorithm uses successive approximation
()
 next_guess = guess -
′ ()

 Partial code of algorithm that gets input and finds next guess

#Try Newton Raphson for cube root

x = int(input('What x to find the cube root of? '))
g = int(input('What guess to start with? '))
print('Current estimate cubed = ', g**3)

next_g = g - ((g**3 - x)/(3*g**2))

print('Next guess to try = ', next_g)
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6.100L Lecture 2 29
F-STRINGS

 Available starting with Python 3.6

 Character f followed by a
formatted string literal
 Anything that can be appear in a
normal string literal
 Expressions bracketed by curly braces { }
 Expressions in curly braces evaluated at runtime, automatically
converted to strings, and concatenated to the string preceding
them
num = 3000
fraction = 1/3
print(num*fraction, 'is', fraction*100, '% of', num)
print(num*fraction, 'is', str(fraction*100) + '% of', num)
print(f'{num*fraction} is {fraction*100}% of {num}')
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6.100L Lecture 2 30
 BIG IDEA
Expressions can be
placed anywhere.
Python evaluates them!

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6.100L Lecture 2 32
CONDITIONS for
BRANCHING

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6.100L Lecture 2 33
BINDING VARIABLES and VALUES

 In CS, there are two notions of equal

 Assignment and Equality test

 variable = value
 Change the stored value of variable to value
 Nothing for us to solve, computer just does the action

 some_expression == other_expression
 A test for equality
 No binding is happening
 Expressions are replaced by values and computer just does the
comparison
 Replaces the entire line with True or False
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6.100L Lecture 2 34
COMPARISON OPERATORS

 i and j are variable names

 They can be of type ints, float, strings, etc.
 Comparisons below evaluate to the type Boolean
 The Boolean type only has 2 values: True and False

i > j
i >= j
i < j
i <= j
i == j  equality test, True if i is the same as j
i != j  inequality test, True if i not the same as j
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6.100L Lecture 2 35
LOGICAL OPERATORS on bool

 a and b are variable names (with Boolean values)

not a  True if a is False
False if a is True
a and b  True if both are True
a or b  True if either or both are True

A B A and B A or B
True True True True
True False False True
False True False True
False False False False
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6.100L Lecture 2 36
COMPARISON EXAMPLE

pset_time = 15
sleep_time = 8
print(sleep_time > pset_time)
derive = True
drink = False
both = drink and derive
print(both)
pset_time 15

sleep_time 8

derive True

drink False

both False

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6.100L Lecture 2 37
YOU TRY IT!
 Write a program that
 Saves a secret number in a variable.
 Asks the user for a number guess.
 Prints a bool False or True depending on whether the guess
matches the secret.

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6.100L Lecture 2 38
WHY bool?

 When we get to flow of control, i.e. branching to different

expressions based on values, we need a way of knowing if a
condition is true
 E.g., if something is true, do this, otherwise do that

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6.100L Lecture 2 40
INTERESTING ALGORITHMS
INVOLVE DECISIONS

It’s midnight

Free
food
email

Go get it! Sleep

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6.100L Lecture 2 41
If right clear, If right blocked, If right and If right , front,
go right go forward front blocked, left blocked,
go left go back

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6.100L Lecture 2 42
BRANCHING IN PYTHON
if <condition>:
<code>
<code>
...
<rest of program>

sion>
<expression>
...
else:
<expression>
<expression>
...
<rest of program>

 <condition> has a value True or False

 Indentation matters in Python!
 Do code within if block if condition is True
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6.100L Lecture 2 43
BRANCHING IN PYTHON
if <condition>:
<code>
<code>
...
<rest of program>

if <condition>:
<code>
<code>
...
else:
<code>
<code>
...
<rest of program>

 <condition> has a value True or False

 Indentation matters in Python!
 Do code within if block when condition is True or code within else
block when condition is False. 39

6.100L Lecture 2 44
BRANCHING IN PYTHON
if <condition>: if <condition>:
<code> <code>
<code> <code>
... ...
<rest of program>
elif <condition>:
<code>
if <condition>: <code>
<code> ...
<code> elif <condition>:
... <code>
else: <code>
<code> ...
<code> <rest of program>
...
<rest of program>

 <condition> has a value True or False

 Indentation matters in Python!
 Run the first block whose corresponding <condition> is True
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6.100L Lecture 2 45
BRANCHING IN PYTHON
if <condition>: if <condition>: if <condition>:
<code> <code> <code>
<code> <code> <code>
... ... ...
<rest of program>
elif <condition>: elif <condition>:
<code> <code>
if <condition>: <code> <code>
<code> ... ...
<code> elif <condition>: else:
... <code> <code>
else: <code> <code>
<code> ... ...
<code> <rest of program> <rest of program>
...
<rest of program>

 <condition> has a value True or False

 Indentation matters in Python!
 Run the first block whose corresponding <condition> is True.
The else block runs when no conditions were True
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6.100L Lecture 2 46
BRANCHING EXAMPLE

pset_time = ???
sleep_time = ???
if (pset_time + sleep_time) > 24:
print("impossible!")
elif (pset_time + sleep_time) >= 24:
print("full schedule!")
else:
leftover = abs(24-pset_time-sleep_time)
print(leftover,"h of free time!")
print("end of day")

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6.100L Lecture 2 47
YOU TRY IT!
 Semantic structure matches visual structure
 Fix this buggy code (hint, it has bad indentation)!

x = int(input("Enter a number for x: "))

y = int(input("Enter a different number for y: "))
if x == y:
print(x,"is the same as",y)
print("These are equal!")

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6.100L Lecture 2 48
INDENTATION and NESTED
BRANCHING
 Matters in Python
 How you denote blocks of code
x = float(input("Enter a number for x: ")) 5 5 0
y = float(input("Enter a number for y: ")) 5 0 0
if x == y: True False True
print("x and y are equal") <- <-
if y != 0: True False
print("therefore, x / y is", x/y) <-
elif x < y: False
print("x is smaller")
else:
print("y is smaller") <-
print("thanks!") <- <- <-
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6.100L Lecture 2 50
 BIG IDEA
Practice will help you
build a mental model of
how to trace the code
Indentation does a lot of the work for you!

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6.100L Lecture 2 51
YOU TRY IT!
 What does this code print with
 y=2
 y = 20
 y = 11
 What if if x <= y: becomes elif x <= y: ?

answer = ''
x = 11
if x == y:
answer = answer + 'M'
if x >= y:
answer = answer + 'i'
else:
answer = answer + 'T'
print(answer)

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6.100L Lecture 2 52
YOU TRY IT!
 Write a program that
 Saves a secret number.
 Asks the user for a number guess.
 Prints whether the guess is too low, too high, or the same as the secret.

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6.100L Lecture 2 53
 BIG IDEA
Debug early,
debug often.
Write a little and test a little.
Don’t write a complete program at once. It introduces too many errors.
Use the Python Tutor to step through code when you see something
unexpected!

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6.100L Lecture 2 55
SUMMARY

 Strings provide a new data type

 They are sequences of characters, the first one at index 0
 They can be indexed and sliced
 Input
 Done with the input command
 Anything the user inputs is read as a string object!
 Output
 Is done with the print command
 Only objects that are printed in a .py code file will be visible in the shell
 Branching
 Programs execute code blocks when conditions are true
 In an if-elif-elif… structure, the first condition that is True will
be executed
 Indentation matters in Python!
49

6.100L Lecture 2 56
MITOpenCourseWare
https://ocw.mit.edu

6.100L Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python

Fall 2022

Forinformation aboutciting these materials orourTerms ofUse,visit: https://ocw.mit.edu/terms.

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