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Python Introducing Lists Using Lists Continental

Posted by Joshua Faisal
Joshua Faisal
4,493 Points

I'd like you to now only print continents that begin with the letter "A". HINT: Remember that you can access characters

I don't understand how to do an if statement that detects the first letters of the elements inside the list

continents.py 
continents = [
    'Asia',
    'South America',
    'North America',
    'Africa',
    'Europe',
    'Antarctica',
    'Australia',
]
# Your code here
for continent in continents:
    print("* " + continents[0,3,5.6])

1 Answer

Brandon White
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Brandon White
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 34,660 Points

Hi Joshua,

It may help to understand that a string is essentially a list of characters. So in order to target the third item in a list of foods like this:

example.py 
foods = ['spaghetti', 'cheeseburger', 'dumplings', 'meatloaf', 'garden salad']

# you would/could do something like the following
print("Food Item: ", foods[2]) # output: Food Item: dumplings

So if you want to then target the third character in a string (which again is essentially a list of characters), you could do something like this:

example_2.py 
my_fav_color = "candy apple red"
# Print the third character in my_fav_color
print("A Letter: ", my_fav_color[2]) # output: A Letter: n

If you still have trouble figuring it out after that, let me know and I'll add an answer here. But hopefully, that info is enough for you to come up with the answer on your own.

Good luck!

Joshua Faisal
Joshua Faisal
4,493 Points

im still really confused at how make an 'if' statement that detects the first letter of the elements inside the list to see if it is "A"

Brandon White
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Brandon White
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 34,660 Points

Below is maybe the simplest solution.

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