Question

Assume the following statement appears in a program: days = 'Monday Tuesday Wednesday' Write a statement that splits the string, creating the following list: \([\) 'Monday' , 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday' ]

Short answer

Answer: You can split the string into a list by using the split() method, which by default splits the string at whitespace characters. Here's the code to split the given string: days = 'Monday Tuesday Wednesday' days_list = days.split()

Step-by-step solution

Identify the delimiter

The first thing to do when working with a string that needs to be split is to identify the delimiter, which is the character used to separate the elements in the string. In this case, the delimiter is a space.

Use the split() method

The next step is to use the split() method to split the string into a list. This is a built-in method in Python that allows you to easily separate a string into a list based on a specified delimiter. By default, it splits the string at whitespace characters.

Implementation

To implement the solution, simply call the split() method on the given 'days' string and assign the result to a variable. Here's the code that accomplishes this task: days_list = days.split() Now, the 'days_list' variable will contain the desired list: ['Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday']

Key concepts

split() method

Splitting strings in Python is an incredibly convenient way to break down larger strings into smaller, more manageable components. The split() method is particularly used for this purpose. It takes a string and divides it into a list of substrings based on a specified delimiter.

When the split() method is applied without arguments, as seen in our exercise, it defaults to splitting on any whitespace, which includes spaces, tabs, and line breaks. However, if you needed to split a string using a different delimiter, such as a comma or semicolon, you could pass that as an argument to the method, like split(',') or split(';').

But be cautious: if the delimiter string doesn’t occur in your input string, you'd end up with a list containing the original string as the single element. On the flip side, if the string begins or ends with the delimiter or if there are consecutive delimiters in the string, you'd get empty strings in your result list. Use the split() method wisely to ensure your data is parsed correctly.

Python strings

Strings in Python are sequences of characters enclosed in quotes. They are immutable, which means that once a string is created, it cannot be directly modified. If you need to change a string, you would typically create a new one with the necessary alterations.

In the context of our exercise, the string 'Monday Tuesday Wednesday' is composed of three separate words, each representing a day of the week. This string is treated as a single entity until we apply the split() method. With Python strings, there is plenty of useful methods besides split() that can be applied - such as strip() for removing whitespace, upper() for converting to uppercase, and find() for locating substrings.

Remember that when working with strings, understanding their properties can play a pivotal role in implementing functionality correctly, especially in string manipulation tasks.

Python list

A Python list is a versatile and widely-used data structure which can hold an ordered collection of items. These items can be of different data types including integers, strings, and even other lists. In our exercise, after the application of split(), we receive a list containing the substrings 'Monday', 'Tuesday', and 'Wednesday'.

Lists are mutable, allowing modifications such as adding, removing, or changing items. To add items you can use methods like append() or extend(), and to remove items you can use pop() or remove(). Looping through lists, slicing them, and checking for membership is also easily done with Python's intuitive syntax.

By mastering lists and their operations, Python programmers can effectively manage collections of data for algorithms and applications that require storing and manipulating sequences of elements.