In a print statement with a "sep" parameter, the values are not being separated. Why is this happening?

Question

Hi everyone! I have a list (panthers_players) containing dictionaries.
~~~python
[{'name': 'Phillip Helm', 'guardians': ['Thomas', 'Helm', 'and', 'Eva', 'Jones'], 'experience': True, 'height': 44}, {'name': 'Suzane Greenberg', 'guardians': ['Henrietta', 'Dumas'], 'experience': True, 'height': 44}, {'name': 'Joe Smith', 'guardians': ['Jim', 'Smith', 'and', 'Jan', 'Smith'], 'experience': True, 'height': 42}, {'name': 'Joe Kavalier', 'guardians': ['Sam', 'Kavalier', 'and', 'Elaine', 'Kavalier'], 'experience': False, 'height': 39}, {'name': 'Sammy Adams', 'guardians': ['Jeff', 'Adams', 'and', 'Gary', 'Adams'], 'experience': False, 'height': 45}, {'name': 'Matt Gill', 'guardians': ['Charles', 'Gill', 'and', 'Sylvia', 'Gill'], 'experience': False, 'height': 40}]
~~~
I'm trying to print the guardians on one line, separated by commas. Like this:
~~~python
Thomas Helm and Eva Jones, Henrietta Dumas, Jim Smith and Jan Smith, Sam Kavalier and Elaine Kavalier, Jeff Adams and Gary Adams, Charles Gill and Sylvia Gill
~~~
I tried this code:
~~~python
panthersplayersguardians = []
                for player in panthersplayers:
                    panthersplayersguardians.append(player["guardians"])
                for entry in panthersplayersguardians:
                    guardiansstring = " ".join(entry)
                    print(guardians_string, end = " ", sep = ", ")
~~~
However, no commas separate the values. The console prints:
~~~python
Thomas Helm and Eva Jones Henrietta Dumas Jim Smith and Jan Smith Sam Kavalier and Elaine Kavalier Jeff Adams and Gary Adams Charles Gill and Sylvia Gill
~~~
If I understand correctly, I thought my code would do this:
~~~python
panthersplayersguardians = []
create new list, panthersplayersguardians
            for player in panthers_players:
loop through each dictionary in panthers_players
                panthers_players_guardians.append(player["guardians"])
add the value for "guardians" to the list panthersplayersguardians.
            for entry in panthers_players_guardians:
loop through each guardian list in panthersplayersguardian
                guardians_string = " ".join(entry)
adds each guardian in panthersplayersguardian to a string called guardians_string
                print(guardians_string, end = " ", sep = ", ")
prints guardians_string. Each value has a space added to the end of it, and will then be separated by a comma.
~~~
This is obviously not the case, though. Any ideas on why there are no commas separating each value? 
I'm also open to any differing strategies altogether!
Thank you for your time!
Note: For this assignment, I have to:
- Keep the guardians in panthers_players as a list.
- print the guardians as a comma-separated string.

Steven Parker · Accepted Answer

Since there's only one thing being printed at a time (guardians_string), the separator isn't used.   It wouldn't help to print the unjoined string at this point as separate items, since it would add commas between every name.
But instead of printing within the loop, you could create a new list of the joined names and then print that out as separate items when the loop is done:
py
guardians_list = []                          # new: create a new list
for entry in panthers_players_guardians:
    guardians_string = " ".join(entry)
    guardians_list.append(guardians_string)  # new: add the name string to the new list
print(*guardians_list, sep = ", ")           # new: NOW print the big list with the separators

This might be another good place for a list comprehension.  You could replace all that with this:
py
guardians_list = [" ".join(entry) for entry in panthers_players_guardians]
print(*guardians_list, sep = ", ")

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Asher Orr

Asher Orr

In a print statement with a "sep" parameter, the values are not being separated. Why is this happening?

1 Answer

Steven Parker

Steven Parker

Asher Orr

Asher Orr