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Why the final index using range in python is not equal to end parameter? [duplicate]

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Why are slice and range upper-bound exclusive?
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>>> range(1,11)
gives you
[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
Why not 1-11?
Did they just decide to do it like that at random or does it have some value I am not seeing?

Because it's more common to call range(0, 10) which returns [0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9] which contains 10 elements which equals len(range(0, 10)). Remember that programmers prefer 0-based indexing.
Also, consider the following common code snippet:
for i in range(len(li)):
pass
Could you see that if range() went up to exactly len(li) that this would be problematic? The programmer would need to explicitly subtract 1. This also follows the common trend of programmers preferring for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++) over for(int i = 0; i <= 9; i++).
If you are calling range with a start of 1 frequently, you might want to define your own function:
>>> def range1(start, end):
... return range(start, end+1)
...
>>> range1(1, 10)
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Although there are some useful algorithmic explanations here, I think it may help to add some simple 'real life' reasoning as to why it works this way, which I have found useful when introducing the subject to young newcomers:
With something like 'range(1,10)' confusion can arise from thinking that pair of parameters represents the "start and end".
It is actually start and "stop".
Now, if it were the "end" value then, yes, you might expect that number would be included as the final entry in the sequence. But it is not the "end".
Others mistakenly call that parameter "count" because if you only ever use 'range(n)' then it does, of course, iterate 'n' times. This logic breaks down when you add the start parameter.
So the key point is to remember its name: "stop".
That means it is the point at which, when reached, iteration will stop immediately. Not after that point.
So, while "start" does indeed represent the first value to be included, on reaching the "stop" value it 'breaks' rather than continuing to process 'that one as well' before stopping.
One analogy that I have used in explaining this to kids is that, ironically, it is better behaved than kids! It doesn't stop after it supposed to - it stops immediately without finishing what it was doing. (They get this ;) )
Another analogy - when you drive a car you don't pass a stop/yield/'give way' sign and end up with it sitting somewhere next to, or behind, your car. Technically you still haven't reached it when you do stop. It is not included in the 'things you passed on your journey'.
I hope some of that helps in explaining to Pythonitos/Pythonitas!

Exclusive ranges do have some benefits:
For one thing each item in range(0,n) is a valid index for lists of length n.
Also range(0,n) has a length of n, not n+1 which an inclusive range would.

It works well in combination with zero-based indexing and len(). For example, if you have 10 items in a list x, they are numbered 0-9. range(len(x)) gives you 0-9.
Of course, people will tell you it's more Pythonic to do for item in x or for index, item in enumerate(x) rather than for i in range(len(x)).
Slicing works that way too: foo[1:4] is items 1-3 of foo (keeping in mind that item 1 is actually the second item due to the zero-based indexing). For consistency, they should both work the same way.
I think of it as: "the first number you want, followed by the first number you don't want." If you want 1-10, the first number you don't want is 11, so it's range(1, 11).
If it becomes cumbersome in a particular application, it's easy enough to write a little helper function that adds 1 to the ending index and calls range().

It's also useful for splitting ranges; range(a,b) can be split into range(a, x) and range(x, b), whereas with inclusive range you would write either x-1 or x+1. While you rarely need to split ranges, you do tend to split lists quite often, which is one of the reasons slicing a list l[a:b] includes the a-th element but not the b-th. Then range having the same property makes it nicely consistent.

The length of the range is the top value minus the bottom value.
It's very similar to something like:
for (var i = 1; i < 11; i++) {
//i goes from 1 to 10 in here
}
in a C-style language.
Also like Ruby's range:
1...11 #this is a range from 1 to 10
However, Ruby recognises that many times you'll want to include the terminal value and offers the alternative syntax:
1..10 #this is also a range from 1 to 10

Consider the code
for i in range(10):
print "You'll see this 10 times", i
The idea is that you get a list of length y-x, which you can (as you see above) iterate over.
Read up on the python docs for range - they consider for-loop iteration the primary usecase.

Basically in python range(n) iterates n times, which is of exclusive nature that is why it does not give last value when it is being printed, we can create a function which gives
inclusive value it means it will also print last value mentioned in range.
def main():
for i in inclusive_range(25):
print(i, sep=" ")
def inclusive_range(*args):
numargs = len(args)
if numargs == 0:
raise TypeError("you need to write at least a value")
elif numargs == 1:
stop = args[0]
start = 0
step = 1
elif numargs == 2:
(start, stop) = args
step = 1
elif numargs == 3:
(start, stop, step) = args
else:
raise TypeError("Inclusive range was expected at most 3 arguments,got {}".format(numargs))
i = start
while i <= stop:
yield i
i += step
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()

The range(n) in python returns from 0 to n-1. Respectively, the range(1,n) from 1 to n-1.
So, if you want to omit the first value and get also the last value (n) you can do it very simply using the following code.
for i in range(1, n + 1):
print(i) #prints from 1 to n

It's just more convenient to reason about in many cases.
Basically, we could think of a range as an interval between start and end. If start <= end, the length of the interval between them is end - start. If len was actually defined as the length, you'd have:
len(range(start, end)) == start - end
However, we count the integers included in the range instead of measuring the length of the interval. To keep the above property true, we should include one of the endpoints and exclude the other.
Adding the step parameter is like introducing a unit of length. In that case, you'd expect
len(range(start, end, step)) == (start - end) / step
for length. To get the count, you just use integer division.

Two major uses of ranges in python. All things tend to fall in one or the other
integer. Use built-in: range(start, stop, step). To have stop included would mean that the end step would be assymetric for the general case. Consider range(0,5,3). If default behaviour would output 5 at the end, it would be broken.
floating pont. This is for numerical uses (where sometimes it happens to be integers too). Then use numpy.linspace.

Python Find the mean school assignment - What is a loop?

I have been working on this assignment for about 2 weeks and have nothing done. I am a starter at coding and my teacher is really not helping me with it. She redirects me to her videos that I have to learn from every time and will not directly tell or help me on how I can do it. Here are the instructions to the assignment (said in a video, but made it into text.
Find the mean
Create a program that finds the mean of a list of numbers.
Iterate through it, and instead of printing each item, you want to add them together.
Create a new variable inside of that, that takes the grand total when you add things together,
And then you have to divide it by the length of your array, for python/java script you’ll need to use the method that lets you know the length of your list.
Bonus point for kids who can find the median, to do that you need to sort your list and then you need to remove items from the right and the left until you only have one left
All you’re doing is you need to create a variable that is your list
Create another variable that is a empty one at the moment and be a number
Iterate through your list and add each of the numbers to the variable you created
Then divide the number by the number of items that you had in the list.
Here's what I've done so far.
num = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6];
total = 0;
total = (num[0] + total)
total = (num[1] + total)
total = (num[2] + total)
total = (num[3] + total)
total = (num[4] + total)
total = (num[5] + total)
print(total)
However, she tells me I need to shorten down the total = (num[_] + total) parts into a loop. Here is how she is telling me to do a loop in one of her videos.
for x in ____: print(x)
or
for x in range(len(___)): print (x+1, ____[x])
there is also
while i < len(___):
print(___[i])
i = i + 1
I really don't understand how to do this so explain it like I'm a total noob.

First of all, loops in python are of two types.
while: a while loop executes the code in a body until a condition is true. For example:
i = 0
while(i < 5):
i = i + 1
executes i = i + 1 until i < 5 is true, meaning that when i will be equal to 5 the loop will terminate because its condition becomes false.
for: a for loop in python iterates over the items of any sequence, from the first to the last, and execute its body at each iteration.
Note: in both cases, by loop body I mean the indented code, in the example above the body is i = i + 5.
Iterating over a list. You can iterate over a list:
Using an index
As each position of the array is indexed with a positive number from 0 to the length of the array minus 1, you can access the positions of the array with an incremental index. So, for example:
i = 0
while i < len(arr):
print(arr[i])
i = i + 1
will access arr[0] in the first iteration, arr[1] in the second iteration and so on, up to arr[len(arr)-1] in the last iteration. Then, when i is further incremented, i = len(arr) and so the condition in the while loop (i < arr[i]) becomes false. So the loop is broken.
Using an iterator
I won't go in the details of how an iterator works under the surface since it may be too much to absorb for a beginner. However, what matters to you is the following. In Python you can use an iterator to write the condition of a for loop, as your teacher showed you in the example:
for x in arr:
print(x)
An iterator is intuitively an object that iterates over something that has the characteristic of being "iterable". Lists are not the only iterable elements in python, however they are probably the most important to know. Using an iterator on a list allows you to access in order all the elements of the list. The value of the element of the list is stored in the variable x at each iteration. Therefore:
iter 1: x = arr[0]
iter 2: x = arr[1]
...
iter len(arr)-1: x = arr[len(arr)-1]
Once all the elements of the list are accessed, the loop terminates.
Note: in python, the function range(n) creates an "iterable" from 0 to n-1, so the for loop
for i in range(len(arr)):
print(arr[i])
uses an iterator to create the sequence of values stored in i and then i is in turn used on the array arr to access its elements positionally.
Summing the elements. If you understand what I explained to you, it should be straightforward to write a loop to sum all the elements of a list. You initialize a variable sum=0 before the loop. Then, you add the element accessed as we saw above at each iteration to the variable sum. It will be something like:
sum = 0
for x in arr:
sum = sum + x
I will let you write an equivalent code with the other two methods I showed you and do the other points of the assignment by yourself. I am sure that once you'll understand how it works you'll be fine. I hope to have answered your question.

She wants you to loop through the list.
Python is really nice makes this easier than other languages.
I have an example below that is close to what you need but I do not want to do your homework for you.
listName = [4,8,4,7,84]
for currentListValue in listName:
#Do your calculating here...
#Example: tempVar = tempVar + (currentListValue * 2)
as mentioned in the comments w3schools is a good reference for python.

skip iterations in for loop in python?

I have programmed in C++ earlier but I am new to Python. I searched for this but i was not able to find the appropriate answer. In C++, I can do:
for(int i=0; i<10;i++)
{
i+=5;
std::cout<<i<<std::endl
}
The values of i would be 5 and 11. But in python if i do:
for i in range(0,10):
i+=5
print i
The value of i does update for that iteration of loop, but in the next iteration, it will become 1.
While I do understand that in python, after each iteration, i will contain the next value in the tuple/list generated by range, but is there any way I can make it skip iterations like in C++? I really don`t want to use the next() function 5 times
EDIT: I can use the third parameter of range function for general use, but what if I want to skip some iterations for say if only a certain condition is true. eg
for(int i=0; i<10;i++)
{
if(i%2)i+=1;
std::cout<<i<<std::endl
}

If you want to skip iterations when a condition is true, then use continue:
for i in range(10):
if i % 2:
continue
print(i)

You can use a regular while loop. it will look less nice but it does the job.
for example:
i = 0
while i < 100:
print i
if i % 2 == 0:
i += 5
i+=1

I know what you were thinking, but there's something built-in for python that allows you to set the iteration step within the range() function. Here is the official Python Documentation on range().
In essence, to skip x after each iteration, you would do:
for i in range(start, stop, x + 1):
# functions and stuff
Hope this helped.

I can't figure out this sequence - 11110000111000110010

NOTE: This is for a homework assignment, but the portion I have a question on is ok to ask help for.
I have to script out a sequence 11110000111000110010 (i am using python) without using switches or if statements and only a maximum of 5 for and whiles.
I already have my script laid out to iterate, I just can't figure out the algorithm as recursive or explicit let alone whether the element's are 1's 2's or 4's =/
As much as we have learned so far there is no equation or algorithm to use to figure OUT the algorithm for sequence. Just a set of instructions for defining one once we figure it out. Does anyone see a pattern here I am missing?
EDIT: What I am looking for is the algorithm to determine the sequence.
IE the sequence 1,3,6,10,15 would come out to be a[n]=(a[n-1]+n) where n is the index of the sequence. This would be a recursive sequence because it relies on a previous element's value or index. In this case a[n-1] refers to the previous index's value.
Another sequence would be 2, 4, 6, 8 would come out to be a[n] = (n*2) which is an explicit sequence because you only require the current index or value.
EDIT: Figured it out thanks to all the helpful people that replied.... I can't believe I didn't see it =/

There are many possible solutions to this problem. Here's a reusable solution that simply decrements from 4 to 1 and adds the expected number of 1's and 0's.
Loops used : 1
def sequence(n):
string = ""
for i in range(n):
string+='1'*(n-i)
string+='0'*(n-i)
return string
print sequence(4)
There's another single-line elegant and more pythonic way to do this:
print ''.join(['1'*x+'0'*x for x in range(4,0,-1)])
Loops used : 1, Lines of code : 1
;)

Note how there's a nested structure here. In pseudocode (so you do the python yourself):
for i in 4 .. 1:
for b in 1 .. 0:
for j in 1 .. i:
print b

You could try this:
print ''.join(['1'*i+'0'*i for i in range(4,0,-1)])

b_len = 4
ones = '1111'
zeros = '0000'
s = ''
for n in range(b_len, -1, -1):
s = s + ones[:n] + zeros[:n]
print s
prints:
11110000111000110010

I see. Four "1" - four "0", three "1" - three "0", two "1" - two "0", one "1" - one "0". 20 digits in total. What it means I have no clue.
#!/usr/bin/python
s=''
i=4
while i >0:
s=s+'1'*i+'0'*i
i -=1
print s
11110000111000110010

Is it exactly this sequence or do you want to be abble to change the length of the 1st sequence of 1?
you can use a reversed iteration loop like in this code:
def askedseq(max1):
seq = [] # declaring temporary sequence
for i in range(max1,0,-1): # decreasing iteration loop
seq += i*[1] + i*[0] # adding the correctly sized subseq
return seq
print askedseq(4) #prints the required sequence
print askedseq(5) #prints the equivalent sequence with 11111
prints:
11110000111000110010
111110000011110000111000110010
you can also look at numpy to do such things

Please explain Python sequence reversal

Not sure where I picked this up, but it stuck and I use it all the time.
Can someone explain how this string reversal works? I use it to test for palindromic strings without converting it to a mutable type first.
>>> word = "magic"
>>> magic = word[::-1]
>>> magic
'cigam'
I would put my best guess, but I don't want to walk in with any preconceptions about the internals behind this useful trick.

The slice notation goes like this:
my_list[start:end:step]
So, when you do [::-1], it means:
start: nothing (default)
end: nothing (default)
step: -1 (descendent order)
So, you're going from the end of the list (default) to the first element (default), decreasing the index by one (-1).
So, as many answers said, there is no sorting nor in-place swapping, just slice notation.

You can have a look here - it is an extended slice.

"What's New in Python 2.3", section 15, "Extended Slices".

This "trick" is just a particular instance of applying a slice operation to a sequence. You can use it to produce a reversed copy of a list or a tuple as well. Another "trick" from the same family: [:] is often used to produce a (shallow) copy of a list.
"What's new in Python 2.3" is an unexpected entry point into the maze. Let's start at a more obvious(?) place, the current 2.X documentation for sequence objects.
In the table of sequence operations, you'll see a row with Operation = s[i:j:k], Result = "slice of s from i to j with step k", and Notes = "(3)(5)".
Note 3 says "If i or j is negative, the index is relative to the end of the string: len(s) + i or len(s) + j is substituted. But note that -0 is still 0."
Note 5 says "The slice of s from i to j with step k is defined as the sequence of items with index x = i + n*k such that 0 <= n < (j-i)/k. In other words, the indices are i, i+k, i+2*k, i+3*k and so on, stopping when j is reached (but never including j). If i or j is greater than len(s), use len(s). If i or j are omitted or None, they become “end” values (which end depends on the sign of k). Note, k cannot be zero. If k is None, it is treated like 1."
We have k == -1, so the indices used are i, i-1, i-2, i-3 and so on, stopping when j is reached (but never including j). To obtain the observed effect, the "end" value used for i must be len(s)-1, and the "end" value used for j must be -1. Thus the indices used are last, last-1, ..., 2, 1.
Another entry point is to consider how we might produce such a result for any sequence if [::-1] didn't exist in the language:
def reverse_traversal_of_sequence(s):
for x in range(len(s) - 1, -1, -1):
do_something_with(s[x])