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Python Introducing Lists Using Lists Continental

How do I get only specific items to print out a list using python? i.e. Only items starting with the letter A.

continents = [

'Asia',

'South America',

'North America',

'Africa',

'Europe',

'Antarctica',

'Australia',

]

print("continent")

for continent in continents:

print("* " + continent)
continents.py
continents = [
    'Asia',
    'South America',
    'North America',
    'Africa',
    'Europe',
    'Antarctica',
    'Australia',
]
# Your code (
print("continent")
for continent in continents:
    print("* " + continent)

Thanks Kevin, that helped. You’ve explained it in a way that made complete sense!

1 Answer

Kevin S
seal-mask
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Kevin S
Data Analysis Techdegree Student 15,862 Points

Hi Tyler,

A solution to the question you are asking is as follows:

for continent in continents:
    if continent[0] == 'A':
        print('* ' + continent)

This is basically saying:

"For each continent in the list of continents, if the first letter of the continent is a capital letter A, go ahead and print the continent (along with that extra formatting that you wanted)."

A good thing to remember is that the individual characters of a string can be accessed using an index ( an index is the [0] part). Therefore continent[1] would be targeting the second letter and continent[2] would be targeting the third letter.

Hope this Helps!