Introduction In this tutorial, we’ll take a look at how to check if a list contains an element or value in Python. We’ll use a list of strings, containing a few animals: animals = [‘Dog’, ‘Cat’, ‘Bird’, ‘Fish’] Check if List Contains Element With for Loop A simple and rudimentary method to check if a list contains an element is looping through it, and checking if the item we’re on matches the one we’re looking for. Let’s use a for […]

Introduction Python is a dynamically typed language, and the variable data types are inferred without explicit intervention by the developer. If we had code that needed a list but lacked type hints, which are optional, how can we avoid errors if the variable used is not a list? In this tutorial, we’ll take a look at how to check if a variable is a list in Python, using the type() and isinstance() functions, as well as the is operator: Developers […]

Introduction Python is a dynamically typed language, and the variable data types are inferred without explicit intervention by the developer. If we had code that requires a string to work correctly but lacked type hints, which are optional, how can we avoid errors if the variable used is not a string? In this tutorial, we’ll take a look at how to check if a variable is a string in Python, using the type() and isinstance() functions, as well as the […]

Inner functions, also known as nested functions, are functions that you define inside other functions. In Python, this kind of function has direct access to variables and names defined in the enclosing function. Inner functions have many uses, most notably as closure factories and decorator functions. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to: Provide encapsulation and hide your functions from external access Write helper functions to facilitate code reuse Create closure factory functions that retain state between calls Code decorator […]

Functional programming is a programming paradigm in which the primary method of computation is evaluation of functions. In this tutorial, you’ll explore functional programming in Python. Functional programming typically plays a fairly small role in Python code. But it’s good to be familiar with it. At a minimum, you’ll probably encounter it from time to time when reading code written by others. You may even find situations where it’s advantageous to use Python’s functional programming capabilities in your own code. […]