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Python Python Collections (2016, retired 2019) Tuples Packing

Posted by Tilak Muruduru Divakar
Tilak Muruduru Divakar
6,459 Points

touples packing challenge clue

In touples packing challenge " write a function 'multiply' which should take any number of arguments and return their product, type of the data shouldn't matter", the instructor mentioned, "slices might become handy for this". I am not able to relate how slices can be handy in solving this. Could someone please help me with this?

4 Answers

Myers Carpenter
Myers Carpenter
6,421 Points
Myers Carpenter
Myers Carpenter
6,421 Points

I have been writing python for 15 years, and I have no idea. Maybe you could do something like:

multiply.py 
def multiply(*args):
    acc = 1
    for ii in range(len(args)):
        acc = acc * args[ii]
    return acc

but that feels forced when you could do

multiply.py 
def multiply(*args):
    acc = 1
    for ii in args:
        acc = acc * ii
    return acc
Matthew Byrne
Matthew Byrne
1,920 Points

Could someone explain to me how Myers Carpenters second code works? I can't work it out

Myers Carpenter
Myers Carpenter
6,421 Points
Myers Carpenter
Myers Carpenter
6,421 Points

Matthew Byrne : Look at the insides of the function with print(). Try adding lines like print("args: {!r}".format(args)) and then run it to see what happens:

multiply.py 
def multiply(*args):
    print("args: {!r}".format(args))
    acc = 1
    for ii in args:
        print("ii: {!r}".format(ii))
        acc = acc * ii
    return acc

print(multiply(1, 2, 3))

myers@toad:~$ python multiply.py
args: (1, 2, 3)
ii: 1
ii: 2
ii: 3
6
Alan Kuo
Alan Kuo
7,697 Points
Alan Kuo
Alan Kuo
7,697 Points

I was struck on this as well I wrote something similar to your code but it makes no sense I copied your code and ran it on Pycharm it doesn't give me an answer. Since you're a staff can you please advise this to the administrator that I just started to learn Python for 1 week and they gave me this challenge which I feel so stressed out if I can't solve the problem and find no clues for it.

Matthew Byrne
Matthew Byrne
1,920 Points
Matthew Byrne
Matthew Byrne
1,920 Points

Thanks!

Craig Dennis
STAFF
Craig Dennis
Treehouse Teacher
Craig Dennis
Craig Dennis
Treehouse Teacher

Slice wise, the hint is pointing at a combination between pulling the first value out and a for loop over a slice of all values except that first one..something like

total = values[0]
for value in values[1:]:
    total *= value

Let me know if that hint doesn't get you there.