for loops.

Week 6 | Lecture 1 (6.1)

This Week’s Content
▪ Lecture 6.1
▪ for loops
▪ Reading: 9.3, 9.4
▪ Lecture 6.2
▪ for loops on indices, nested loops
▪ Reading: 9.5 – 9.9
▪ Lecture 6.3
▪ Design Problem: Madlibs
Looping (Iterating)
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▪ Looping means repeating Looping
something over and over
until a particular condition
is satisfied.

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Looping (Iterating)
List of
Tweets
▪ Looping means repeating Looping
something over and over
until a particular condition
is satisfied.

Does the
Tweet
Yes/No
contain
#cleancode
 Looping (Iterating)
▪ Looping means repeating
something over and over
until a particular condition
is satisfied.

Check
for Looping
Yes/No
Waldo
 Looping (Iterating)
▪ Looping means repeating
something over and over
until a particular condition
is satisfied.

Check
for Looping
Yes/No
Waldo
 Looping (Iterating)
▪ Looping means repeating
something over and over
until a particular condition
is satisfied.

Check
for Looping
Yes/No
Waldo
 Looping (Iterating)
▪ Looping means repeating
something over and over
until a particular condition
is satisfied.

Check
for Looping
Yes/No
Waldo
 Looping (Iterating)
▪ Looping means repeating
something over and over
until a particular condition
is satisfied.

Check
for Looping
Yes/No
Waldo
for loops
▪ There are several ways to while expression:
repeat a block of code. do something.
▪ We’ve already seen
while loops and this
week, we’ll discuss for
loops. for item in iterable:
▪ Do Something = block of do something.
code we want to execute.
for loops name = ‘Sebastian’

▪ A for loop starts with for character in name:

the keyword for. print(character)

Output:
S
e
b
a
s
t
i
a
n
for loops name = ‘Sebastian’

▪ Next, we provide the for character in name:

name of one of more print(character)
variables.
▪ We have called the
variable character, but
you can call it whatever
you like as long as it
for item1, item2 in iterable:
follows rules for naming do something.
a variable.
for loops name = ‘Sebastian’

▪ Our variable character for character in name:

will be bound to each of print(character)
the items in the
sequence in turn.
Output:
S
e
b
a
s
t
i
a
n
for loops name = ‘Sebastian’

▪ Specify what the values for character in name:

are in. print(character)
▪ What is the iterable?
▪ An iterable is an object
that can be iterated over. Output:
▪ Strings are iterable (we S

know these from last

e
b
week). a
s
▪ Lists (next week) are t
iterable. i
a
n
for loops name = ‘Sebastian’

▪ As with the while loop, for character in name:

the for loop statement print(character)
ends with a colon.
▪ This is how Python
knows you are going to Output:
create a new block of S
e
code. b
a
s
t
i
a
n
for loops name = ‘Sebastian’

▪ Indenting four spaces for character in name:

tells Python what lines of print(character)
code are in that block
you want to repeated.
Output:
S
e
b
a
s
t
i
aIndent
n
for loops name = ‘Sebastian’

▪ What output should we for character in name:

get? print(character)

Output:
S
e
b
a
s
t
i
a
n
for loops name = ‘Sebastian’

▪ What output should we for character in name:

get? print(character)

Output:
S
e
b
a
s
t
i
a
n
for loops
▪ Let’s try it ourselves.

Open your
notebook

Click Link:
1. Your first for loop
for vs while
▪ You’ve learned about for loops and
while loops, but when should you use
them?
▪ Firstly, all for loops can be written as
while loops, and vice-versa.
▪ You should use a for loop when you
know how many times the loop should
run.
▪ If you want the loop to break based on a
condition (do this until….) you should
use a while loop.
for vs while
▪ Problem: You have had your DNA
sequenced and each of your
chromosomes is represented by a string
of nucleotides: adenine (A), thymine (T), Open your
guanine (G), and cytosine (C).
notebook
▪chrome_4 = ATGGGCAA
▪ Create a function to count the number
of occurrences of a nucleotides. Click Link:
2. while vs for
my_func(chrome_4, ‘A’)
>>> 3
while for
i = 0 counter = 0
counter = 0 for character in chrome_4:
while i < len(chrome_4): if character == 'A':
if chrome_4[i] == 'A': counter += 1
counter += 1
i += 1
▪ Differences
while for
i = 0 counter = 0
counter = 0 for character in chrome_4:
while i < len(chrome_4): if character == 'A':
if chrome_4[i] == 'A': counter += 1
counter += 1
i += 1
▪ Differences
▪ In the while loop, the loop variable (i) was the
index of each character, while in the for loop the
loop variable (character) is the value of each
character.
▪ No indexing [i] required in the for loop.
while for
i = 0 counter = 0
counter = 0 for character in chrome_4:
while i < len(chrome_4): if character == 'A':
if chrome_4[i] == 'A': counter += 1
counter += 1
i += 1
▪ Differences
▪ We do not have to worry about how long the
string is (e.g., use len()) because the for loop will
go through every character of the string exactly
once.
while for
i = 0 counter = 0
counter = 0 for character in chrome_4:
while i < len(chrome_4): if character == 'A':
if chrome_4[i] == 'A': counter += 1
counter += 1
i += 1
▪ Differences
▪ We do not have to worry about incrementing the
loop variable (i += 1) as the for loop takes care
of this.
while for
i = 0 counter = 0
counter = 0 for character in chrome_4:
while i < len(chrome_4): if character == 'A':
if chrome_4[i] == 'A': counter += 1
counter += 1
i += 1 4 lines
▪ Differences
6 lines ▪ The for loop is MUCH easier to read and therefore,
desirable when writing code for large collaborative
projects.
▪ #cleancode
for vs while
▪ You should use a for loop when you
know how many times the loop should
run.
▪ If you want the loop to break based on a
condition (do this until….) you should
use a while loop.
while & for Loops
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Customers
▪ for loop or while loop? Looping

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while & for Loops
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▪ for loop or while loop? Looping

Does the
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Yes/No
contain
#cleancode
 while & for Loops
▪ for loop or while loop?

Check
for Looping
Yes/No
Waldo
Breakout Session 1 Vowels: a, e, i, o, u.

▪ Write a function that takes in a

string and returns the number of
vowels in the string. (use for loop) Open your
▪ Test 1
▪ count_vowels('Happy notebook
Anniversary!')
▪5 Click Link:
▪ Test 2 3. Breakout Session 1
▪ count_vowels('xyz')
▪0
Breakout Session 2
▪ Write a function to return the
unique separators in a string of
integer codes. (use for loop)
▪ The string only contains integers Open your
and separators. notebook
▪ Test 1
▪ find_seperators('23,613-23;2:45')
▪ ',-;:' Click Link:
▪ Test 2 4. Breakout Session 2
▪ find_seperators('613-555-3224')
▪ '-'
Lecture Recap
Practice!
▪for loops.
▪Looping over strings.
▪When to use a for loop over a while loop.
for loops.
Week 6 | Lecture 1 (6.1)