Popcorn Hack 1: What are some possible benefits of using lists? What are some real world examples?

Benefits of Lists:

  • Store multiple values in a single variable
  • Easily loop through, modify, and organize data
  • Make code cleaner and more efficient

Real World Examples:

  • Shopping Cart – Stores all items you want to purchase
  • Inbox – A list of all emails you receive
  • Playlist – Songs stored in a list so they can play in order

Popcorn Hack 2: What does this code output?

items = ["pen", "pencil", "marker", "eraser"]
items.remove("pencil")
items.append("sharpener")
print(items[2])

eraser

Popcorn Hack 3: What are some real world examples of filtering algorithms?

Examples of Filtering Algorithms in Real Life:

  • Email Inbox – Only show unread or important emails
  • Online Stores (Amazon) – Filter by price, brand, or ratings
  • Netflix – Recommend shows in a specific genre or rating
  • Spotify Search – Finds songs that match keywords

Relation to Flask Projects:

  • Flask filters database results based on user input (e.g. SQL queries)
  • Matching data is returned using jsonify() for frontend display

Homework Hack Part 1: Create a List & Use List Procedures

# My Favorite Fruits List
fruits = ["apple", "banana", "cherry", "kiwi", "grape"]

# append() adds an item to the end of the list
fruits.append("mango")  # Adds 'mango'

# insert() adds an item at a specific index
fruits.insert(2, "orange")  # Inserts 'orange' at index 2

# remove() removes a specific item
fruits.remove("banana")  # Removes 'banana'

print("Final Fruit List:", fruits)

Final Fruit List: ['apple', 'orange', 'cherry', 'kiwi', 'grape', 'mango']

Homework Hack Part 2: List Traversal Instructions

Steps to Traverse a List:

  1. Start with a list of items.
  2. Use a for loop to go through each item one at a time.
  3. Perform an action (e.g. print or check) during each iteration.
# List of fruits
fruits = ["apple", "orange", "cherry", "kiwi", "grape"]

# Traverse the list using a for loop
for fruit in fruits:
    print("Fruit:", fruit)

Fruit: apple
Fruit: orange
Fruit: cherry
Fruit: kiwi
Fruit: grape

Homework Hack Part 3: Filtering Algorithm

Goal: Filter fruits that start with ‘a’ or ‘g’

Steps:

  1. Start with a list of fruits.
  2. Traverse the list using a for loop.
  3. Use an if statement to check if the fruit starts with ‘a’ or ‘g’.
  4. Append matching items to a new list.
# Filter fruits that start with 'a' or 'g'
fruits = ["apple", "orange", "cherry", "kiwi", "grape", "mango"]
filtered_fruits = []

for fruit in fruits:
    if fruit.startswith("a") or fruit.startswith("g"):
        filtered_fruits.append(fruit)

print("Filtered Fruits:", filtered_fruits)

Filtered Fruits: ['apple', 'grape']

Final Reflection

Filtering algorithms and lists are used every day in apps like Spotify and Netflix to help users find exactly what they want. They work by going through large amounts of data and pulling out only the parts that match the user’s needs.