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Python Python Collections (Retired) Dictionaries Membership

membership

def members(my_dict, my_list): same = [] for item in my_list: for key in my_dict: if item == key: same += item return len(same)

The 'answer' was wrong, because it was 'expecting 2, but got 19.' So I changed the last line to return same so that I could see the list. Instead of getting (apples, coconuts), I got ('f', 'i', 'r', 's', 't', '', 'n', 'a', 'm', 'e', 'l', 'a', 's', 't', '', 'n', 'a', 'm', 'e'). Did I write bad code, or is it somehow referencing the wrong my_dict and my_list? Maybe somehow connected to my workspace?

counts.py
# You can check for dictionary membership using the
# "key in dict" syntax from lists.

### Example
# my_dict = {'apples': 1, 'bananas': 2, 'coconuts': 3}
# my_list = ['apples', 'coconuts', 'grapes', 'strawberries']
# members(my_dict, my_list) => 2
def members(my_dict, my_list):
  same = []
  for item in my_list:
    for key in my_dict:
      if item == key:
        same += item
  return same

1 Answer

Dan Johnson
Dan Johnson
40,533 Points

On a list, += is shorthand for extend, so it'll break up the string and then add each element. So to add the string as a whole rather than its individual elements, you could go with:

same.append(item)

Alternatively you can avoid using lists to count elements and have same be an integer initialized to 0. Then just check for inclusion in the dictionary:

if item in my_dict:
    same += 1