Loopy Function Example....What is this thing

Question

I cant find the answer to this in any of the videos or forum posts and I am sure I just don't know enough knowledge to ask the right question so I apologize up front if this is obvious and I am just missing it.  
In the Loopy function code challenge the block that solves the challenge is:
def loopy(items):
  for thing in items:
    if thing == "STOP":
      break
    else:
      print(thing)
My question is this ... what is "thing" called in this example.  I determined that I could change "thing" to "poop" and that works too but I don't understand why I can just make up a name for this and python seems to know exactly what I am trying to accomplish.   Thanks for any input this is really bugging me.

jcorum · Answer

You didn't give your code, but assuming it looks something like this:
python
def loopy(items):
    # Code goes here
    for item in items:
      if item == "STOP":
        break
      print(item)

The thing the challenge is talking about is the current item in the items list.  As you loop through the items, each one is temporarily placed in the item variable, and then you test to see if that item is STOP or not.
P.S., you don't need to name the variable item, as i do here.  It could be thing, or n, or x, or whatever.  E.g., for thing in items:
But usually coders use the singular of the list name.  So item for a list items, etc.

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Chris Johnson

Chris Johnson

Loopy Function Example....What is this thing

1 Answer

jcorum

jcorum