A heterogeneous list

The list in the following program contains four items, of data types str, int, float, and list. This demonstrates that a list can contain a list.

We saw a triple-quoted string here. For the underscores in the 59_500_000.00 in line 15, see Floating point literals. The $ in line 20 is a plain old dollar sign for money. The ,.2f means “print the float with commas, and two digits to the right of the decimal point”.

heterogeneous.py

Name: Dr. No
Year: 1962
Box office: $59,500,000.00
Starring: Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Joseph Wiseman, Jack Lord

Things to try

The list easier to read if we split it onto two lines:

movie = ["Dr. No", 1962, 59_500_000.00,
    ["Sean Connery", "Ursula Andress", "Joseph Wiseman", "Jack Lord"]
]

More spread out, for legibility and comments:

movie = ["Dr. No", 1962, 59_500_000.00,
    [
        "Sean Connery",   #James Bond
        "Ursula Andress", #Honey Ryder
        "Joseph Wiseman", #Dr. No
        "Jack Lord"       #Felix Leiter
    ]
]

Even more spread out:

movie = [
    "Dr. No",             #title
    1962,                 #year
    59_500_000.00,        #box office
    [
        "Sean Connery",   #James Bond
        "Ursula Andress", #Honey Ryder
        "Joseph Wiseman", #Dr. No
        "Jack Lord"       #Felix Leiter
    ]
]

Take the values out of the format pockets.

#This format string contains 4 lines and 3 pockets.

f = """\
Name: {}
Year: {}
Box office: ${:,.2f}
Starring:"""

print(f.format(movie[0], movie[1], movie[2]))

The above call to print can now be abbreviated to

print(f.format(*movie[:3]))

Instead of one movie, make a list of five movies. Now we have rows and columns of data.

movies = [
    ["Dr. No",                1962,  59_500_000.00, ["Sean Connery", "Ursula Andress", "Joseph Wiseman", "Jack Lord"]],
    ["From Russia With Love", 1963,  79_000_000.00, ["Sean Connery", "Pedro Armendáriz", "Lotte Lenya", "Robert Shaw", "Bernard Lee", "Daniela Bianchi"]],
    ["Goldfinger",            1964, 125_000_000.00, ["Sean Connery", "Honor Blackman", "Gert Fröbe"]],
    ["Thunderball",           1965, 141_200_000.00, ["Sean Connery", "Claudine Auger", "Adolfo Celi", "Luciana Paluzzi", "Rik Van Nutter"]],
    ["Casino Royale",         1967,  41_700_000.00, ["Peter Sellers", "Ursula Andress", "David Niven", "Woody Allen", "Joanna Pettet", "Orson Welles", "Daliah Lavi"]]
]

Would it be easier to read like this?

movies = [
    ["Dr. No",                1962,  59_500_000.00,
        ["Sean Connery", "Ursula Andress", "Joseph Wiseman", "Jack Lord"]
    ],

    ["From Russia With Love", 1963,  79_000_000.00,
        ["Sean Connery", "Pedro Armendáriz", "Lotte Lenya", "Robert Shaw", "Bernard Lee", "Daniela Bianchi"]
    ],

    ["Goldfinger",            1964, 125_000_000.00,
        ["Sean Connery", "Honor Blackman", "Gert Fröbe"]
    ],

    ["Thunderball",           1965, 141_200_000.00,
        ["Sean Connery", "Claudine Auger", "Adolfo Celi", "Luciana Paluzzi", "Rik Van Nutter"]
    ],

    ["Casino Royale",         1967,  41_700_000.00,
        ["Peter Sellers", "Ursula Andress", "David Niven", "Woody Allen", "Joanna Pettet", "Orson Welles", "Daliah Lavi"]
    ]
]

Or like this?

movies = [
    ["Dr. No",                1962,  59_500_000.00,
        [
            "Sean Connery",
            "Ursula Andress",
            "Joseph Wiseman",
            "Jack Lord"
        ]
    ],

    ["From Russia With Love", 1963,  79_000_000.00,
        [
            "Sean Connery",
            "Pedro Armendáriz",
            "Lotte Lenya",
            "Robert Shaw",
            "Bernard Lee",
            "Daniela Bianchi"
        ]
    ],

    ["Goldfinger",            1964, 125_000_000.00,
        [
            "Sean Connery",
            "Honor Blackman",
            "Gert Fröbe"
        ]
    ],

    ["Thunderball",           1965, 141_200_000.00,
        [
            "Sean Connery",
            "Claudine Auger",
            "Adolfo Celi",
            "Luciana Paluzzi",
            "Rik Van Nutter"
        ]
    ],

    ["Casino Royale",         1967,  41_700_000.00,
        [
            "Peter Sellers",
            "Ursula Andress",
            "David Niven",
            "Woody Allen",
            "Joanna Pettet",
            "Orson Welles",
            "Daliah Lavi"
        ]
    ]
]

Now that we have a list of movies, change the rest of the program to

for movie in movies:
    print(f.format(movie[0], movie[1], movie[2]))
    stars = movie[3]

    for star in stars[:-1]: #all but the last
        print(star, end = ", ")

    print(stars[-1])        #the last star
    print()

Name: Dr. No
Year: 1962
Box office: $59,500,000.00
Starring:
Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Joseph Wiseman, Jack Lord

Name: From Russia With Love
Year: 1963
Box office: $79,000,000.00
Starring:
Sean Connery, Pedro Armendáriz, Lotte Lenya, Robert Shaw, Bernard Lee, Daniela Bianchi

Name: Goldfinger
Year: 1964
Box office: $125,000,000.00
Starring:
Sean Connery, Honor Blackman, Gert Fröbe

Name: Thunderball
Year: 1965
Box office: $141,200,000.00
Starring:
Sean Connery, Claudine Auger, Adolfo Celi, Luciana Paluzzi, Rik Van Nutter

Name: Casino Royale
Year: 1967
Box office: $41,700,000.00
Starring:
Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, David Niven, Woody Allen, Joanna Pettet, Orson Welles, Daliah Lavi

Print the box office total too.

total = 0.00

for movie in movies:
    total += movie[2]   #means total = total + movie[2]
    print(f.format(movie[0], movie[1], movie[2]))
    stars = movie[3]

    for star in stars[:-1]:
        print(star, end = ", ")

    print(stars[-1])
    print()

print(f"Total box office: ${total:,.2f}")

Total box office: $446,400,000.00

You could also compute the total like this:

print(f"${sum([movie[2] for movie in movies]):,.2f}")

"""
ZodiacSign.py

Find your zodiac sign.  Select your birth month and day from tkinter menus.
"""

import sys
import datetime
import tkinter

monthNames = [
    None,
    "January",
    "February",
    "March",
    "April",
    "May",
    "June",
    "July",
    "August",
    "September",
    "October",
    "November",
    "December"
]

signs = [
     [ 1, 19, "Capricorn"],
     [ 2, 18, "Aquarius"],
     [ 3, 20, "Pisces"],
     [ 4, 19, "Aries"],
     [ 5, 20, "Taurus"],
     [ 6, 20, "Gemini"],
     [ 7, 22, "Cancer"],
     [ 8, 22, "Leo"],
     [ 9, 22, "Virgo"],
     [10, 22, "Libra"],
     [11, 21, "Scorpio"],
     [12, 21, "Sagittarius"],
     [12, 31, "Capricorn"]
]

root = tkinter.Tk()
root.title("Find your Zodiac Sign.")

#Labels:

monthLabel = tkinter.Label(text = "What is your birth month?", anchor = "w", padx = 5)
monthLabel.grid(row = 0, column = 0)

dayLabel = tkinter.Label(text = "What is your birth day?", anchor = "w", padx = 5)
dayLabel.grid(row = 1, column = 0, sticky = "ew")   #east west

signLabel = tkinter.Label(anchor = "w", padx = 5)
signLabel.grid(row = 2, column = 1, sticky = "ew")

#Variables:

month = tkinter.StringVar(root)
month.set(monthNames[1])   #default value

day = tkinter.IntVar(root)
day.set(1)   #default value

#Menus:

def erase(monthName):
    signLabel["text"] = ""

monthMenu = tkinter.OptionMenu(root, month, *monthNames[1:], command = erase)
monthMenu.grid(row = 0, column = 1, sticky = "ew")

dayMenu = tkinter.OptionMenu(root, day, *range(1, 32), command = erase)
dayMenu.grid(row = 1, column = 1, sticky = "ew")

#Button:

def buttonPressed():
    monthName = month.get()
    monthNumber = monthNames.index(monthName)
    year = 2000   #Pick a year that has  february 29.
    birthday = datetime.datetime(year, monthNumber, day.get())

    for sign in signs:
        if birthday <= datetime.datetime(year, sign[0], sign[1]):
            break

    signLabel["text"] = sign[2]

button = tkinter.Button(root, text = "Press this button.",
    anchor = "w", padx = 5, command = buttonPressed)
button.grid(row = 2, column = 0, sticky = "we")

tkinter.mainloop()

Remove monthNames and replace it by calendar.month_name. (You’ll have to

import
calendar

.) calendar.month_name is almost the same as a list, but at one point you’ll have to turn it into a list explicitly:

    monthNumber = list(calendar.month_name).index(monthName)