In the last few posts, we’ve learned how to create lists (Post #46), access their items with indexing (Post #47), and extract sub-sections with slicing (Post #48). Now, we’re going to explore the single most important characteristic that defines how lists behave: mutability. In this post, you’ll learn what it means for an object to … Read more
In Post #47, we learned how to use indexing (like my_list[0]) to access a single item from a list. This is great for retrieving one piece of data, but what if we need a whole section of the list? What if we want the first three items, the last two, or every other item? For … Read more
In Post #46, we learned how to create lists to store collections of data. But storing data is only useful if we can retrieve it. How do we get a specific item out of a list, like the first name in a list of players or the last item on a to-do list? The answer … Read more
Welcome to Part 3 of our series: Core Data Structures! So far, we have worked with individual pieces of data stored in variables—a single number, a single string, a single boolean. But what happens when you need to work with a collection of related data, like a to-do list, a roster of players, or a … Read more
Welcome to the grand finale of Part 2! We’ve journeyed through the core of what makes programs “smart”: logic and control flow. You now have the tools to make your programs make decisions, repeat actions, and follow different paths based on various conditions. As with our last section, we’ll first briefly recap the powerful concepts … Read more
Over the course of Part 2, we have mastered two major types of control flow: conditional logic with if/elif/else to make decisions, and repetition with for and while loops to perform actions multiple times. The real power of programming comes when we start combining these ideas. In this post, we will explore one of the … Read more
As our programs grow more complex with conditional logic (Post #25) and loops (Post #31, Post #34), it becomes increasingly likely that we will make mistakes. This is a normal and expected part of programming! A mistake in a program is called a bug, and the process of finding and fixing it is called debugging. … Read more
In Post #41, we learned the theory behind nested loops and saw how the inner loop completes its full cycle for each iteration of the outer loop. While generating combinations is useful, one of the best ways to truly understand this flow is to create something visual. In this fun, hands-on post, we will use … Read more
In Post #29, we saw how placing an if statement inside another one—a technique called nesting—allowed us to create more detailed, multi-level logic. We can apply the exact same principle to loops to solve more complex problems. In this post, we will explore the concept of nested loops. You’ll learn how a loop running inside … Read more
We’ve spent the last two posts learning how to control the flow inside our loops with break (Post #38) and continue (Post #39). Now, we’re going to look at a unique and somewhat surprising feature of Python’s loops that you won’t find in many other languages: the optional else block. This isn’t the same else … Read more