10 Helpful Features to Use in a for Loop in Python

Simplify your iterations with just the built-in features

Yong Cui

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Photo by Roman Synkevych on Unsplash

Just like other programming languages, we use for loops to perform repetitive work in Python. The most general form of a for loop takes the following format in Python:

for item in iterable:
# the operation goes here

We often use lists to store data in our project. We can use the list object in a for loop, as shown below.

fruits = ["pineapple", "banana", "grape"]
for fruit in fruits:
print(fruit)

Beyond the most common form, there are a variety of techniques that we can apply to a for loop, which allows us to write better iteration.

Without further ado, let’s get it started.

1. Enumerate Items with enumerate

In a for loop, sometimes you need to know the index of the item or the counter of the item in the iterable. For contrast, the following shows you a possible solution.

for item_i in range(len(fruits)):
fruit = fruits[item_i]
print(f"#{item_i+1}: {fruit}")
#1: pineapple
#2: banana
#3: grape

However, a better way to implement this functionality is to use the built-in…

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Yong Cui
Yong Cui

Written by Yong Cui

Work at the nexus of biomedicine, data science & mobile dev. Author of Python How-to by Manning (https://www.manning.com/books/python-how-to).

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