Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

Python Python Collections (2016, retired 2019) Slices Slice Functions

Magda Roslaniec
Magda Roslaniec
1,166 Points

Can't understand why my code is not accepted. Task 2

This is my code: def first_4(item):

return item[0:4]

def first_and_last_4(item): first = first_4(item) second = item[-1:-4:-1] first_and_last_4 = first + second

return first_and_last_4

Maybe I don't understand what to do, but I thought that I had to concatenate two strings to return a single value? If not, what should I do to correct the code?

slices.py
def first_4(item):

    return item[0:4]

def first_and_last_4(item):
    first = first_4(item)
    second = item[-1:-4:-1]
    first_and_last_4 = first + second

    return first_and_last_4

2 Answers

Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
33,990 Points

You're almost there except for your slice method. In order to slice the last four items we can do the following:

item[-4:]

By doing this you are saying you want to start from the end of the item and slice backwards 4 steps :)

Hope that helps!!

Magda Roslaniec
Magda Roslaniec
1,166 Points

OK, I found my mistake. There should be second = item[-4:].