What does enumerate() mean?

Question

What does for row_number, row in enumerate(cursor): do in Python?

What does enumerate mean in this context?

Answer 1

I am reading a book (Effective Python) by Brett Slatkin and he shows another way to iterate over a list and also know the index of the current item in the list but he suggests that it is better not to use it and to use enumerate instead. I know you asked what enumerate means, but when I understood the following, I also understood how enumerate makes iterating over a list while knowing the index of the current item easier (and more readable).

list_of_letters = ['a', 'b', 'c']
for i in range(len(list_of_letters)):
    letter = list_of_letters[i]
    print (i, letter)

The output is:

0 a
1 b
2 c

I also used to do something, even sillier before I read about the enumerate function.

i = 0
for n in list_of_letters:
    print (i, n)
    i += 1

It produces the same output.

But with enumerate I just have to write:

list_of_letters = ['a', 'b', 'c']
for i, letter in enumerate(list_of_letters):
    print (i, letter)