This is my third post in a series to quickly introduce Python:

• Python Primer 1
• Python Primer 2 – Lists and Dictionaries
• Python Primer 3 – Loops and Conditions (You are here)
• Python Primer 4 – Functions

This part is probably the most difficult to understand, but it’s really what makes programming dynamic and powerful. Loops and conditions logic (and most programming logic, actually) resembles the way people think and behave. I’d say a loop is kind of like eating, execute the same “put into mouth” action while in the “hungry” state. Conditions are pretty much the same as anytime you say “if” in your daily life – if snow is on the road, stay home, otherwise (else) go to work.

If Statement

To illustrate iffing in Python, I’m going to use two built-in functions, len() and print(). len() simply gets the length of something and “returns” it (gives it back) to you, in the form of an integer (a number). print() just writes what you give it to the screen. In the interactive shell, print is usually assumed when you press enter but it’s more useful in a script (more on that later). Using the same colors list from the previous post, I’ll get its length and compare it to 2 (because I can) using the greater-than sign “>”, perhaps you remember that one from grade school.

colors = ["red","purple","blue"]
because_i_can = 2
if len(colors) > because_i_can:
    print("I've got lots of colors")

I've got lots of colors

Notice how the print part is indented. Python requires this to let the interpreter know that particular code is “inside” the if statement. Don’t forget the colon after your condition, Python gets mad.

If you change “because_i_can” to 3, they’re now equal and the print code doesn’t run. This is the nature of iffing – only run the code inside if the condition is true.

There’s lots more to if statements, like “elif” which is just another condition you can add to an if statement, and “else” which runs if none of the if conditions ran. You can look those all up on the official documentation, and probably guess their syntax. But the simplest form only uses one “if”. I use it all the time.

Loops

There’s really just two basic kinds of loops, “for” and “while”. Their logic is designed to resemble the English words from which their names are derived. For – “for each something in a group of somethings, do something”. While – “while in something is true, do something. Stop when it’s no longer true”. I personally don’t use while very much although it certainly has its use cases. I mostly find myself trying to slap some data around to get it to do what I want, so I use “for” loops quite a bit. I’ll start with that.

colors = ["red","purple","blue"]
for color in colors:
    print("I like "+color)

I like red
I like purple
I like blue

“color” is a temporary variable that is created on-the-fly as you write the for loop, and “colors” is the group of stuff that you want to go through. The cool part is I only had write my print() code once, but it was executed for each color in colors. Let’s combine it with an if statement to make it a little more fun:

my_favorite_color = "purple"
for color in colors:
    if color == my_favorite_color:
        print("Purple is my FAVORITE color.")
    else:
        print("I like "+color)

I like red
Purple is my FAVORITE color.
I like blue

A couple of new things here – “==” is used to compare two things and see if they’re equal. I also added an “else” part to my if statement. It runs if the “if” part doesn’t run.

“While” statements are nice if you want to run some code while a certain something is true. I was quite satisfied with my food example above, so we’ll run with that. Let’s say our stomach can fit 3 potatoes in it. We’ll add potatoes to our stomach until there are 3 in there:

potatoes_in_stomach = 0
while potatoes_in_stomach < 3:
    potatoes_in_stomach += 1

potatoes_in_stomach
3

“+=” is a handy way to say “add 1 to this variable”. So 1 was added until potatoes_in_stomach was no longer less than 3.

Built-in functions are cool, but next I’ll take a look at how to make a custom function.