create a function

Question

I'm trying to create a function that returns the first 4 items given to it. I've tried many ways and can't get it.

slices.py

items = []
def first_4():
    for item in items:
    four_items = items[:3]
        first_4()

Answer 1 · 2018-11-30T19:05:57Z

November 30, 2018 7:05pm

This is a classic slicing problem. You can get the first four elements in several ways. They intend for you to understand the colon slicing operation.

data[start_element : end_element : optional_step_count]

Below is a "cookbook approach" you can use:

To get the first three elements, either start at 0 or leave it blank (the default is 0)

data[0:3] or data[:3]

To get the last three elements, start three elements from the end and go to the end. The first way is the least complicated.

data[-3:] or data[len(data)-3:] or data[len(data)-3:len(data)]

To get even elements, start at 0, step by 2

data[::2] or data[0::2]

To get odd elements, start at 1, step by 2

data[1::2]

To get the reverse of a list (sort of a tricky approach), start at the end and step backward by -1

data[::-1]

They just want you to write the functions, so you don't need to iterate though a list in the exercise. Here is what you'd write to get the first four elements.

--- SPOILER ALERT---

def first_4(data):
    return data[:4]

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james mchugh

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create a function

1 Answer

Jeff Muday

Jeff Muday

james mchugh

james mchugh