Problem scenario
You want to write a Python program that will accept a list of integers interactively. You want the program to find and print out the largest number and the smallest number of the list entered. You do not want to use the max() or min() functions (which work in Python 3 without importing any library).

What do you do?

Solution

def extremefinder(mainlist):
a = len(mainlist) – 1
b = len(mainlist)
maxnum = 0
minnum = 0
for x in mainlist:
low = 0
high = 0
for y in mainlist:
if (x y):
low = low + 1
if (low == a): # This never evaluates if x == y. …

Continue reading “How Do You Find the Largest and Smallest Numbers in a Python List in O(N^2) Time?”

Problem scenario
You run a Python program. A value of a variable is printing “function at” with a hexadecimal. How can the variable be the intended value of the function and not this meta data of the Python interpreter or just-in-time compiler?

Solution
Use “()” at the end of the function invocation. This syntax is necessary. Here is an example that will cause the problem:

def cool():
a = “foobar”
return a

q = cool
print(q)

Here is an example that will not cause the problem:

def cool():
a = “foobar”
return a

q = cool()
print(q) …

Continue reading “Why Does Your Python Program Return “function at” with a Hexadecimal?”