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Enzo Cnop
5,157 PointsMystery Variable 'word' in first example.
In the first example of a simple 'For loop', Kenneth writes the following:
- my_list = ['hello', 'how', 'are', 'you']
- for word in my_list:
- print(word)
My question is when is the variable 'word' in line two defined? Does Python already know that the list, 'my_list', contains whole words? This is done later with 'number' as well. Does that mean I just set 'for word' or 'for number' based on whether my list contains letters or integers accordingly?
2 Answers
bryonlarrance
16,414 PointsPython knows that the word that follows 'for' in a for loop is the variable. It could be anything - the letter i, cookie, whatever. . . literally whatever. :)
bryonlarrance
16,414 PointsYep! So the for loop could be
for boogers in my_list:
or
for anything in my_list:
ryan smith
687 Pointsbut does that make everything in my_list a booger?
Enzo Cnop
5,157 PointsEnzo Cnop
5,157 PointsI still don't really understand how this works. So any word after 'for' is going to be read/set as a variable? Does this only work because 'word' is set between the 'for' and 'in' operators // is attached to 'my_list'?