VPython Lists

Claimed by Natalie Standish

This page is about using lists in VPython to do computing at a scale larger than one or two objects.

VPython List

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Types of Nests

Lists of Numbers

The most basic list is one that has numbers in it. The list of numbers may contain integers, floats, or both.

Example: numList = [1,2,3.4,5]

Lists of Strings

Lists can also be comprised of words (strings). These words must have "" surrounding them for the word to be considered a string and for the computer to accept it. Example: strList = ["lists","are","super","cool"]

Lists of Both

Lists don't have to be made up of the same type of variable. For example, the list ["twenty",20,5,"five"] is a valid list.

Lists of Lists

Lists can also contain lists within themselves. These are called nested loops. Example: nested = [1,"nest",[1,2]]

Empty Nests

Empty nests are commonly used to initiate a variable and avoid program errors when calling upon that empty list. They generally have variables appended into them and grow throughout the program.

Properties of Lists

Indices

Indexing a list is how we can identify the value at a certain spot in the list. The first component of the list is the 0th index and then it goes up by one until the last component (the nth-1 index in an list of length n). When trying to find the nth index, we use this notation: listName[n]

For example, consider the list nums = [47,36,11,19] nums[0] = 47 nums[1] = 36 nums[2] = 11 nums[3] = 19

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