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Python Introducing Lists Using Lists Continental

David Dong
David Dong
5,593 Points

How do you find the index of something in a string?

This is my code. I don't understand exactly how .index() works, so answering how .index() works would be great too.

continents.py
continents = [
    'Asia',
    'South America',
    'North America',
    'Africa',
    'Europe',
    'Antarctica',
    'Australia',
]
# Your code here
for continent in continents:
    if continent.index('A') = 0:
        print("* " + continent)

1 Answer

Here is an explanation of .index().

The index() method returns the index of the element in the list. If not found, it raises a ValueError exception indicating the element is not in the list.

You will have to handle the value error if the element is not found. The following is one solution to the challenge using .index()

continents = [
    'Asia',
    'South America',
    'North America',
    'Africa',
    'Europe',
    'Antarctica',
    'Australia',
]
# Your code here
for continent in continents:
    try:
        if continent.index('A') == 0:
            print('* ' + continent)
    except ValueError:
        pass

Note: a comparison operator is used to compare the index to 0 - not the assignment operator.