Please help me understand?

Question

The question i'm working on asks "Given the variables name1 and name2 , write a fragment of code that assigns the larger of their associated values to first" ('first' in bold letters)

(NOTE: "larger" here means alphabetically larger, not "longer". Thus, "mouse" is larger than "elephant" because "mouse" comes later in the dictionary than "elephant"!)<--- as it adds under the question

So far i have this code "= (name1, name2)" and the error message is telling me that i may need to insert something before and after the = sign. What could that be?

Answer 1

I'd suggest reading something like the Python Tutorial to get started.

Answer 2

= is not a function. It is an operator You need a single lvalue (left value) for that operator such as

lvalue = rvalue1 + rvalue2 ...

What you need is a function that returns the max such as mac(pram1, param2).

Hint: max

And then use max as an rvalue (right value).

Answer 3

OK, let start with the beginning:

To assign some value to the variable name1 you write something like:

 name1 = 'mouse'

Name1 is the name of the variable, 'mouse' is the content you want to store in it.

Now if you want to copy the content of name1 to first you would do:

first = name1

Now name1 and first both contains the string mouse.

Now the remaining problem is to make a choice. Which is the greater content of two variables name1 and name2 ? Comparizon operators like < will give you the answer.

Finally, depending of which is the larger you'll copy either name1 or name2 to first. You should have a look at the if construct to do that.

(You could also use the max function as another poster suggested, but I believe that's not the goal of the exercise)

Answer 4

Quit being so stingy with the code, people! Here, I think your professor should appreciate this approach:

#!/usr/bin/env python

largest = False

def findlargesthelper(list):
    global largest
    for str in list:
        if largest == False or str > largest:
            largest = str

def findlargest(list):
    global largest
    findlargesthelper(list)
    result = largest
    # Don't forget to reset it for the next time around!
    largest = None
    return result

first = findlargest(('mouse', 'elephant'))
print first

You only really want to use globals when iterating string lists, and "False" as a default comprehension value is pretty standard Python. Please do let us know how the assignment goes for you, would you?