I'm working with python 3.5, and insert isn't behaving as I expect it to.
scorelist = ["x","x"]
for q in range(0, len(scorelist)):
if scorelist[q] == "x":
scorelist.insert((q), " ")
I'd expect that to leave the least reading as follows
scorelist = ["x", " ", "x", " "]
Instead, it leaves me with
scorelist = [" ", " ", "x", "x"]
I'm pretty stumped as to why this is the output. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
It's generally a Bad Idea to mutate any container while iterating over it.
In your case, len(scorelist) is evaluated once, at the time the for loop begins. The length is 2 at that time, so the range is just [0, 1]. Nothing later can possibly change that.
In the first iteration, q is 0, and scorelist[0] is "x", so
scorelist.insert(0, " ")
leaves scorelist as
[" ", "x", "x"]
In the second iteration, q is 1, and for the new value of scorelist, scorelist[1] is still "x", so
scorelist.insert(1, " ")
leaves scorelist as
[" ", " ", "x", "x"]
Then the loop ends. There's nothing really mysterious about it, but it's far from obvious either - which is why it's a Bad Idea to mutate containers while iterating over them ;-)
If you're determined to insert a blank at the end, and between every pair of elements before that, here's one obscure way to do it:
for q in reversed(range(1, len(scorelist) + 1)):
scorelist.insert(q, " ")
Then, e.g., if scorelist starts as
['x', 'y', 'z']
that loop will leave it as
['x', ' ', 'y', ' ', 'z', ' ']
By iterating "backwards", the insertions don't interfere with the original indices of the original list elements. If that's confusing (hint: it is! ;-) ), just work it out one iteration at a time, as I spelled it out for your original code.
