Assigning elements to a list using for loop?

Here is an option:

the_list = [6, 7, 2, 4, 5, 7]

val = max([the_list[0], the_list[-1])

the_list = [val]*len(the_list)

You've confused an index with a list element. Consider the input list [17, 3, -42, -3]. Your for statement steps i through the values 17, 3, -42, and -3, in that order. However, the assignments you do assume that i is taking on the position or index values, 0, 1, 2, 3.

Try this, instead:

def max_end3(nums):
    for i in range(len(nums)):
        if (nums[0] > nums[len(nums)-1]):
            nums[i] = nums[0]

You do not have to do for loop since 'nums is already a list. I believe coding bat is giving array length is 3. So try this

def max_end3(nums):
  if nums[0] > nums[-1]:
    return nums[:1] *3
  elif nums[-1] > nums[0]:
    return nums[-1:] * 3
  elif nums[0] == nums[-1]:
    return nums[:1] * 3
  else:
    return nums

for i in nums / nums[i] is not the proper way to index the list nums. I think you can try this instead:

def max_end3(nums):
    for i,num in enumerate(nums):
        if (nums[0] > nums[-1]):
            nums[i] = nums[0]
        else:
            nums[i] = nums[-1]
    return (nums)

Use the built-in enumerate function to return "a tuple containing a count (from start which defaults to 0) and the values obtained from iterating over sequence." This allows you to concurrently index & iterate the values.

Use nums[-1] to represent the last item in the list, since Python supports negative indexing :)

Note: other solutions are more elegant, and this is not how I would solve the problem, but for a beginner it is sometimes easier to understand if working with simple constructs like for loop.

To replace each element in the given list I would pre-compute the wanted value, and then assign it to each element, thus:

def max_end3(nums):
    larger = max((nums[0], nums[-1]))
    for i in range(len(nums)):
        nums[i] = larger

You could alternatively leave the original list unchanged, and generate a new list of the wanted values. If the new list is assigned to the same name as the old one, it will have a similar effect, eg.

nums = [max((nums[0], nums[-1]))] * len(nums)