Automate the boring stuff with Python: Comma Code

Question

Currently working my way through this beginners book and have completed one of the practice projects \'Comma Code\' which asks the user to construct a program which:

Answer 1

That one wins for simplicity Hein.

Only, the author specified:

"your function should be able to work with any list value passed to it."

To accompany non strings, add str() tags to al the [i] functions.

spam = ['apples', 'bananas', 'tofu', 'cats', 'bears', 21]
def pList(x):
    for i in range(len(x) - 2):
        print(str(x[i]) + ', ', end='')
    print(str(x[-2]) + ' and ' + str(x[-1]))
pList(spam)

Answer 2

Here's a solution that handles the Oxford comma properly. It also copes with an empty list, in which case it returns an empty string.

def list_thing(seq):
    return (' and '.join(seq) if len(seq) <= 2
        else '{}, and {}'.format(', '.join(seq[:-1]), seq[-1]))

spam = ['apples', 'bananas', 'tofu', 'cats']

for i in range(1 + len(spam)):
    seq = spam[:i]
    s = list_thing(seq)
    print(i, seq, repr(s))

output

0 [] ''
1 ['apples'] 'apples'
2 ['apples', 'bananas'] 'apples and bananas'
3 ['apples', 'bananas', 'tofu'] 'apples, bananas, and tofu'
4 ['apples', 'bananas', 'tofu', 'cats'] 'apples, bananas, tofu, and cats'

---

FWIW, here's a slightly more readable version using an if-else statement instead of a conditional expression:

def list_thing(seq):
    if len(seq) <= 2:
        return ' and '.join(seq)
    else:
        return '{}, and {}'.format(', '.join(seq[:-1]), seq[-1])    

And here's a slightly less readable version, using an f-string:

def list_thing(seq):
    if len(seq) <= 2:
        return ' and '.join(seq)
    else:
        return f"{', '.join(seq[:-1])}, and {seq[-1]}"   

---

Note that Martijn's code produces 'apples, and bananas' from the 2 item list. My answer is more grammatically correct (in English), however Martijn's is more technically correct because it does exactly what's specified in the OP's quote (although I disagree with his handling of the empty list).

Answer 3

def commacode(mylist):
    mylist[-1] = 'and ' + mylist[-1]
    mystring = ', '.join(mylist)
    return mystring

spam = ['apple', 'bananas', 'tofu', 'cats']

print commacode(spam)

Answer 4

I'm new to python, there might be other easier solutions but here's mine

    spam = ["cats","dogs","cows","apes"]
    def commaCode(list):
        list[-1] =  "and " + list[-1]
        print(", ".join(list))


    commaCode(spam)

Answer 5

spam=['apples','bananas','tofu','cats']
print("'",end="")
def val(some_parameter):

for i in range(0,len(spam)):
if i!=(len(spam)-1):
print(spam[i]+', ',end="")
else:
print('and '+spam[-1]+"'")
val(spam)

Answer 6

def sample(values):
    if len(values) == 0:
         print("Enter some value")
    elif len(values) == 1:
        return values[0]
    else:
        return ', '.join(values[:-1] + ['and ' + values[-1]])

spam = ['apples', 'bananas', 'tofu', 'cats']
print(sample(spam))