Leonardo Petry <leonardo.petry...@gmail.com> writes: > So I am starting with python and I have been working on some simple > exercises.
You are welcome here. Congratulations on starting with Python! You may also be interested to know there is also a separate forum <URL:https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor> dedicated to tutoring beginners in Python. > Here is something I found curious about python loops > > This loop run each character in a string > > def avoids(word,letters): > flag = True > for letter in letters: > if(letter in word): > flag = False > return flag You should avoid using U+0009 TAB characters for indentation, since they render inconsistently and can easily result in invisible differences in changed code. Instead, use four-column indentation with space (U+0020 SPACE) characters. > The loop below (at the bottom) runs each line of the file > > fin = open('wordplay.txt'); > user_input = raw_input('Enter some characters: ') > count = 0 > for line in fin: > word = line.strip() > if(avoids(word, user_input)): > count += 1; > > This is just too convenient. Is that a complaint, or shock at how easy it is? :-) > Basically my question is: Why is python not treating the contents of > wordplay.txt as one long string and looping each character? Because the types of the objects are different; different types define different behaviour. Indeed, that is almost the definition of what a type is. A text string object supports iteration by returning each character <URL:https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#text-sequence-type-str>. A file object supports iteration by returning each line from the stream <URL:https://docs.python.org/3/library/io.html>. -- \ “Our products just aren't engineered for security.” —Brian | `\ Valentine, senior vice-president of Microsoft Windows | _o__) development, 2002 | Ben Finney -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
