CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonpython-3.x
Xavier Hooke
Xavier Hooke

Reputation: 11

How to find character in element in list

I'm trying to find a way of finding a specific character in an element in a list. The program is meant to check if the first letter of the input words are the same, and to output 'True' if so:

inp = input('Enter words: ')
inp2 = inp.split()
if inp2[0][len] in inp2[0][len]:
  print('True')

and to have it do something like this:

Enter word: beetle btleee
True

or:

Enter word: beetle tleeeb
False

Upvotes: 1

Views: 166

Answers (2)

Arwen
Arwen

Reputation: 168

I hope this is what you are asking for:

input1 = input('Enter the two words: ')
input2=input1.split()
def function(input2):
    if input2[0][0]==input2[1][0]:
        print('True')
    else:
        print('False')

function(input2)  #and then call the function.

Upvotes: 0

RoadRunner
RoadRunner

Reputation: 26315

You need to compare the first character of the first word with inp2[0][0] against first character of the second word with inp2[1][0]. You can do this easily with the equals == operator. 

if inp2[0][0] == inp2[1][0]:
    print("First letters are equal") # or True
else:
    print("First letters are not equal") # or False

For safety you should also ensure inp2 has 2 words. You can use an if condition to do this:

if len(inp2) == 2:
    if inp2[0][0] == inp2[1][0]:
        print("First letters are equal")
    else:
        print("First letters are not equal")
else:
    print("Please enter two words")

Also printing "True" is a not necessary since you can use reserved boolean types True and False. You can have a look at Built-in Constants from the documentation for more information.

Another approach is using tuple unpacking with try..catch exception handling:

inp = input('Enter words: ')

try:
    word1, word2 = inp.split()

    if word1[0] == word2[0]:
        print("First letters are equal")
    else:
        print("First letters are not equal")

except ValueError:
    print("Please enter only 2 words")

Which catches a ValueError: too many values to unpack exception if more than two words were entered, or ValueError: not enough values to unpack if less than 2 words were entered. You can have a look at Handling Exceptions from the documentation for more information on how to handle errors/exceptions.

You could also wrap the word comparison code inside a function that returns bool:

def is_equal_first_letters(word1, word2):
    if word1[0] == word2[0]:
        return True
    else:
        return False

Alternatively with more terse syntax:

def is_equal_first_letters(word1, word2):
    return word1[0] == word2[0]

Then call the function in the rest of your code:

inp = input('Enter words: ')

try:
    word1, word2 = inp.split()
    print(is_equal_first_letters(word1, word2))

except ValueError as ex: 
    print("Please enter only 2 words")

You can have a look at this Python Functions tutorial to learn more about functions.

Upvotes: 1

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