** CodeHS AP CSP 7.2.9 Top Movies **
PLEASE ANSWER THIS USING PYTHON!
Create a list of your favorite 4 movies. Print out the 0th element in the list. Now set the 0th element to be “Star Wars” and try printing it out again.
The correct answer and explanation is:
Here’s the Python code to meet the requirements:
# Step 1: Create a list of 4 favorite movies
favorite_movies = ["Inception", "The Dark Knight", "Interstellar", "Parasite"]
# Step 2: Print the 0th element in the list
print("Original 0th element:", favorite_movies[0])
# Step 3: Set the 0th element to "Star Wars"
favorite_movies[0] = "Star Wars"
# Step 4: Print the 0th element again
print("Updated 0th element:", favorite_movies[0])
Explanation
In Python, lists are a versatile and powerful data structure that can hold an ordered collection of items. These items can be of any data type, including strings, numbers, or even other lists.
In this task, we first created a list named favorite_movies containing four movie titles. Lists in Python are zero-indexed, meaning the first item in the list is at index 0. To access an element at a specific index, we use square brackets ([]). For instance, favorite_movies[0] retrieves the first movie in the list, which is "Inception" in the original version.
Next, we updated the 0th element of the list to "Star Wars". Lists in Python are mutable, which means their elements can be changed after the list is created. We achieved this by directly assigning a new value to the specific index using favorite_movies[0] = "Star Wars". This operation replaces the previous value at that index.
Finally, we printed the updated value at index 0 to confirm the change. The output demonstrates how the list was modified successfully. This feature of mutability makes lists very flexible for use cases where dynamic changes to the collection are needed.
Lists are a fundamental concept in programming, particularly in Python. They allow developers to group related data and perform operations like adding, removing, or updating elements. This code illustrates how to use indexing and assignment operations with lists effectively, forming the basis for handling collections of data in more complex scenarios. By understanding these concepts, you’ll be better equipped to manage dynamic data structures in Python.