Lesson 3: Lists: The Ordered Collection

Learning Objectives Define what a list is and explain its characteristics as an ordered collection. Create lists and initialize them with various data types. Access individual elements and sub-sections of a list using indexing and slicing. Modify, add, and remove elements from a list using common list methods. Iterate through a list using a loop to process its elements. Explain the concept of mutability in the context of lists. Apply lists to solve simple programming problems, such as storing a collection of items. Ever wondered how your favorite music app keeps track of your playlist in order? 🎶 Or how a game remembers all the items in your inventory? 🤔 In this lesson, we'll dive into 'Lists,' a fundamental data structure in computer science. You'll...

TermDefinitionExample ListAn ordered, mutable collection of items. Items in a list can be of different data types (e.g., numbers, strings, booleans).my_shopping_list = ['milk', 'eggs', 'bread', 'cheese'] ElementAn individual item stored within a list.In `my_shopping_list`, 'milk' is an element, 'eggs' is another element. IndexA numerical position of an element within a list, starting from 0 for the first element. Used to access specific elements.In `my_shopping_list`, 'milk' is at index 0, 'eggs' is at index 1. `my_shopping_list[0]` would give 'milk'. MutabilityThe ability of a data structure to be changed after it has been created. Lists are mutable, meaning you can add, remove, or modify elements.A...

Creating and Initializing a List Lists are defined using square brackets `[]`, with elements separated by commas. To create an empty list, use `[]`. To create a list with initial values, place the values inside the brackets. Example: `my_list = [item1, item2, item3]` Accessing List Elements (Indexing) Use square brackets with an integer index to access an element: `list_name[index]`. Indexes start at 0 for the first element. Negative indexes can be used to count from the end, where -1 is the last element. Example: `my_list[0]` for the first element, `my_list[-1]` for the last. Modifying List Elements Assign a new value to an element at a specific index: `list_name[index] = new_value`. Because lists are mutable, you can change individual elements directly using their...