Dave Angel <da...@davea.name> Wrote in message: > "Clayton Kirkwood" <c...@godblessthe.us> Wrote in message: > > > Second question, why can't a numeric index be >> used to make assignment to a specific location like a[1] = "some value"? If >> the mechanism is to use a.index(1,"some value"), > > The index() method does not change the object a, at least not for > list objects. So that is not a replacement for subscripted > assignment.
In particular, the index () method searches the list. > > The form a[1] = "some_value" works fine, as long as there is > already an object in that list element. In other words, it can be > used to replace an item, but not to change the size. Python does > not support sparse lists, so rather than permitting a size > increase of exactly one, it was decided that the syntax would not > permit any size change. And to grow by 1, append works very > well. > > If you know ahead of time what size you need, you could prefill it > with something like: > > a = [] * 20 Oops. I meant: A = [None] * 20 > > But you might want to check later that you replaced them all. > > > -- DaveA _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor