Discussion 6: Python Lists, Mutability

List Mutation

The two most common mutation operations for lists are item assignment and the append method. 
>>> s = [1, 3, 4]
>>> t = s  # A second name for the same list
>>> t[0] = 2  # this changes the first element of the list to 2, affecting both s and t
>>> s
[2, 3, 4]
>>> s.append(5)  # this adds 5 to the end of the list, affecting both s and t
>>> t
[2, 3, 4, 5]

There are many other list mutation methods:

  • append(elem): Add elem to the end of the list. Return None.
  • extend(s): Add all elements of iterable s to the end of the list. Return None.
  • insert(i, elem): Insert elem at index i. If i is greater than or equal to the length of the list, then elem is inserted at the end. This does not replace any existing elements, but only adds the new element elem. Return None.
  • remove(elem): Remove the first occurrence of elem in list. Return None. Errors if elem is not in the list.
  • pop(i): Remove and return the element at index i.
  • pop(): Remove and return the last element.

Q1: Nested Lists

The mathematical constant e is 2.718281828...

Draw an environment diagram to determine what is printed by the following code.

If you have questions, ask them instead of just looking up the answer! First ask your group, and then the course staff.

Q2: Apply in Place

Implement apply_in_place, which takes a one-argument function fn and a list s. It modifies s so that each element is the result of applying fn to that element. It returns None.

Run in 61A Code
One approach is to use for i in range(...) to iterate over the indices (positions) of s.

Immutable Lists

Q3: Reverse (iteratively)

Write a function reverse_iter that takes a list and returns a new list that is the reverse of the original. Use iteration! Do not use lst[::-1], lst.reverse(), or reversed(lst)!

Run in 61A Code

Tree Recursion with Lists

To solve this problem, all you need are list literals (e.g., [1, 2, 3]), item selection (e.g., s[0]), list addition (e.g., [1] + [2, 3]), len (e.g., len(s)), and slicing (e.g., s[1:]). Use those!

The most important thing to remember about lists is that a non-empty list s can be split into its first element s[0] and the rest of the list s[1:].

>>> s = [2, 3, 6, 4]
>>> s[0]
2
>>> s[1:]
[3, 6, 4]

Q4: Max Product

Implement max_product, which takes a list of numbers and returns the maximum product that can be formed by multiplying together non-consecutive elements of the list. Assume that all numbers in the input list are greater than or equal to 1.

Run in 61A Code
First try multiplying the first element by the max_product of everything after the first two elements (skipping the second element because it is consecutive with the first), then try skipping the first element and finding the max_product of the rest. To find which of these options is better, use max.
A great way to get help is to talk to the course staff!

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