What is the best way to count in a for loop?

Question

I find myself in the need of counting through lists with the help of for loops. What I end up doing is this:

L = ['A','B','C','D']

n = 0
for i in L:
    print(L[n])
    n += 1

I was wondering if there is a better way for doing this, without having to declare an extra variable n every time?

Please keep in mind that this is just a simplified example. A solution like this would not suffice (although in this example the results are the same):

L = ['A','B','C','D']

for i in L:
    print(i)

`for index, element in enumerate(L):` https://docs.python.org/3/library/functions.html#enumerate — Boris, Apr 16 '19 at 08:05

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 16 '19 at 08:06

5

Use enumerate:

L = ['A','B','C','D']
for i, x in enumerate(L):
  print(i,x)

answered Apr 16 '19 at 08:06

Ocaso Protal

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DirtyBit · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-16T08:11:32.577

5

From the docs:

In Python, the enumerate() function is used to iterate through a list while keeping track of the list items' indices.

Using enumerate():

L = ['A','B','C','D']

for index, element in enumerate(L):
      print("{} : {}".format(index,element))    # print(index, L[index])

OUTPUT:

0 : A
1 : B
2 : C
3 : D

edited Apr 16 '19 at 08:11

answered Apr 16 '19 at 08:07

DirtyBit

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What is the best way to count in a for loop?

2 Answers2