Unit 2

Expressions and variables; for loops

Special thanks to Roy McElmurry, John Kurkowski, Scott Shawcroft, Ryan Tucker, Paul Beck for their work.
Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
 Expressions
• Arithmetic is very similar to Java
 Operators: + - * / % (and ** for exponentiation)
 Precedence: () then ** then * / % then + -
 Integers vs. real numbers

>>> 1 + 1
2
>>> 1 + 3 * 4 - 2
11
>>> 7 / 2
3
>>> 7.0 / 2
3.5
>>> 10 ** 6
1000000

2
 Variables
• Declaring
 no type is written; same syntax as assignment
• Operators
 no ++ or -- operators (must manually adjust by 1)

Java Python
int x = 2; x = 2
x++; x = x + 1
System.out.println(x) print(x)
;
x = x * 8
x = x * 8; print(x)
System.out.println(x)
; d = 3.2
d = d / 2
double d = 3.2;
print(d)
d = d / 2;
System.out.println(d)
; 3
 Types
• Python is looser about types than Java
 Variables' types do not need to be declared
 Variables can change types as a program is running

Value Java type Python type

42 int int
3.14 double float
"ni!" String str

4
 String Multiplication
• Python strings can be multiplied by an integer.
 The result is many copies of the string concatenated together.

>>> "hello" * 3
"hellohellohello"

>>> print(10 * "yo ")

yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo

>>> print(2 * 3 * "4")

444444

5
 String Concatenation
• Integers and strings cannot be concatenated in Python.
 Workarounds:
str(value) - converts a value into a string
print(expr, expr) - prints two items on the same
line
>>> x = 4
>>> print(”You should not count to " + x + ".")
TypeError: cannot concatenate 'str' and 'int' objects

>>> print("You should not count to " + str(x) + ".")

Thou shalt not count to 4.

>>> print(x + 1, "is out of the question.")

5 is out of the question.

6
 The for Loop
for name in range(max):
statements

 Repeats for values 0 (inclusive) to max (exclusive)

>>> for i in range(5):

... print(i)
0
1
2
3
4

7
 for Loop Variations
for name in range(min, max):
statements
for name in range(min, max, step):
statements
 Can specify a minimum other than 0, and a step other than 1

>>> for i in range(2, 6):

... print(i)
2
3
4
5
>>> for i in range(15, 0, -5):
... print(i)
15
10
5

8
 Nested Loops
• Nested loops are often replaced by string * and +
Java
....1
...2 1 for (int line = 1; line <= 5; line++) {
2 for (int j = 1; j <= (5 - line); j++) {
..3 3 System.out.print(".");
.4 4 }
5 System.out.println(line);
5 6 }

Python
1 for line in range(1, 6):
2 print((5 - line) * "." + str(line))

9
 Exercise
• Rewrite the Mirror lecture program in Python. Its output:

#================#
| <><> |
| <>....<> |
| <>........<> |
|<>............<>|
|<>............<>|
| <>........<> |
| <>....<> |
| <><> |
#================#

10
 Exercise Solution
def bar():
print "#" + 16 * "=" + "#"
def top():
for line in range(1, 5):
# split a long line by ending it with \
print "|" + (-2 * line + 8) * " " + \
"<>" + (4 * line - 4) * "." + "<>" + \
(-2 * line + 8) * " " + "|"
def bottom():
for line in range(4, 0, -1):
print "|" + (-2 * line + 8) * " " + \
"<>" + (4 * line - 4) * "." + "<>" + \
(-2 * line + 8) * " " + "|"
# main
bar()
top()
bottom()
bar()

11
 Concatenating Ranges
• Ranges can be concatenated with +
 Can be used to loop over a disjoint range of numbers

>>> range(1, 5) + range(10, 15)

[1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14]

>>> for i in range(4) + range(10, 7, -1):

... print(i)
0
1
2
3
10
9
8

12
 Exercise Solution 2
def bar():
print "#" + 16 * "=" + "#"
def mirror():
for line in range(1, 5) + range(4, 0, -1):
print "|" + (-2 * line + 8) * " " + \
"<>" + (4 * line - 4) * "." + "<>" + \
(-2 * line + 8) * " " + "|"
# main
bar()
mirror()
bar()

13
 Constants
• Python doesn't really have constants.
 Instead, declare a "global" variable at the top of your code.
 All methods will be able to use this value.

constant.py
1 MAX_VALUE = 3
2
3 def printTop():
4 for i in range(MAX_VALUE):
5 for j in range(i):
6 print(j)
7 print()
8
9 def printBottom():
10 for i in range(MAX_VALUE, 0, -1):
11 for j in range(i, 0, -1):
12 print(MAX_VALUE)
13 print()
14
 Exercise Solution 3
SIZE = 4
def bar():
print "#" + 4 * SIZE * "=" + "#"
def mirror():
for line in range(1, SIZE + 1) + range(SIZE, 0, -1):
print "|" + (-2 * line + 2 * SIZE) * " " + \
"<>" + (4 * line - 4) * "." + "<>" + \
(-2 * line + 2 * SIZE) * " " + "|"
# main
bar()
mirror()
bar()

15