CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonarrays
Theo Hodges
Theo Hodges

Reputation: 133

How could I check if a value in an array begins with a certain letter?

I have a program in which a user picks a letter. The program should then search through a list and count how many names start with the letter the user chose.

This is what I've got so far:

nameslist = ["bob", "phil", "james"]

letter = input("Pick a letter.")
letter = letter.lower()

wordcount = 0

for I in range(len(nameslist)-1):
   if list[I].startswith(letter):
      wordcount = wordcount+1
      print(list[I])

I was led to believe that startswith would help me but it doesn't work.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2206

Answers (2)

Mark Skelton
Mark Skelton

Reputation: 3891

If you want to keep your current code all you need to do is fix some typos. Here is the correct code with comments showing what I changed:

nameslist=["bob","phil","james"]

letter=input("Pick a letter.")
letter=letter.lower()

wordcount=0

for I in range(len(nameslist)):  # you dont need the -1 at the end of this
   if nameslist[I].startswith(letter): # you need to change list to nameslist
      wordcount=wordcount+1
      print(nameslist[I])  # you need to change list to nameslist

Upvotes: 4

gtlambert
gtlambert

Reputation: 11961

You could use the following:

names = ["bob","phil","james"]

letter = input("Pick a letter.")
letter = letter.lower()
count = 0   

for name in names:
    if name.startswith(letter):
        print(name)
        count += 1

This iterates over each name in names and uses the startswith() method to check whether name begins with letter. If name begins with letter, it prints name. It also counts the number of name in names that begin with letter using the count variable.

Upvotes: 7

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