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Python Python Collections (2016, retired 2019) Slices Slice Functions

Dezhi Zhu
Dezhi Zhu
2,662 Points

Please help

Make a function named reverse_evens that accepts a single iterable as an argument. Return every item in the iterable with an even index...in reverse. For example, with [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] as the input, the function would return [5, 3, 1]. You can do it!

slices.py
def first_4(arg):
    return(arg[0:4])
def first_and_last_4(arg):
    return(arg[:4]+arg[-4:])
def odds(arg):
    return(arg[1::2])

def reverse_events(arg):
    return(arg[::-2])

2 Answers

Brian Anstett
Brian Anstett
5,831 Points

Hey Dezhi, For what's its worth, you reverse_events() function get the wanted result of [5, 3, 1] but you named it "reverse_events()" instead of "reverse_evens()". The grader is really specific, so change the name and see if that makes it correct.

Good Luck!

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,007 Points

Here's some hints:

  • you wrote "reverse_events" but the function name should be "reverse_evens"
  • a simple reverse index will only work on half of the possible cases
  • as it is now, getting "evens" or "odds" will be based on the size of the list
  • to always get evens, the index will need to be calculated based on the list size
  • another approach would be to get evens first, then reverse them in a separate operation