Pop() Goes The Weasel - Python

The pop() function allows you to remove an item from the end of a list,

>>> list
['red', 'green', 'blue', 'red', 'yellow', 'blue', 'black', 'white', 'green']
>>> len(list)
9
>>> list.pop()
'green'
>>> len(list)
8
>>>

and the str() function converts a list into a printable string.

>>> list
['red', 'green', 'blue', 'red', 'yellow', 'blue', 'black', 'white', 'green']
>>> str(list)
"['red', 'green', 'blue', 'red', 'yellow', 'blue', 'black', 'white',
'green']"
>>>

Finally, the max() and min() methods return the largest and smallest itemwithin a string, list or tuple.

>>> # list
>>> friends = ["Rachel", "Ross", "Joey", "Phoebe", "Monica", "Chandler"]
>>> max(friends)
'Ross'
>>> min(friends)
'Chandler'
>>> # string
>>> alphabet = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
>>> min(alphabet)
'a'
>>> max(alphabet)
'z'
>>> # tuple
>>> num = (1,2,3)
>>> max(num)
3
>>> min(num)
1
>>>

And that's about it for the moment. In this article, you learnt how to opena connection between your Python program and a file residing on yourfilesystem. You then learnt how to use built-in Python methods to read datafrom and to that file, together with some additional methods and propertiesthat might come in useful. Finally, you've also added to your store ofPython knowledge with a look at some of the new features available inPython 2.x.

Over the next few article, we'll be elevating our view a little, with alook at the Python framework for software abstractions like functions,classes and modules. Specifically, in the next article, I'll be showing youhow to build your own functions, and also discussing return values andarguments in the context of a Python program. Make sure you don't miss thatone!

>>> More Python Articles          >>> More By Vikram Vaswani, (c) Melonfire

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