I don't understand this, please help me(i'm newbie)

Question

words = ["hello", "world", "spam", "eggs"]
counter = 0
max_index = len(words) - 1

while counter <= max_index:
word = words[counter]
print(word + "!")
counter = counter + 1

Can anyone explain for me so i can understand this?

Answer 1

Syakirin Ooi

words = ["hello", "world", "spam", "eggs"]
counter = 0
max_index = len(words) - 1
## counts the number of words in the list above
print(max_index)

## the counter begins at zero and will count forward to the number 3 to equal the max_index
## the while loop will continue to execute until counter equals 3
while counter <= max_index:
## each word in the list will be printed as the first words[0] == "hello", words[1] == "world" and so on...
word = words[counter]
print(word + "!")
## counter is increased by one each time the loop cycles
counter = counter + 1

btw this also can be wrote as a smaller loop using enumerate as:
words = ["hello","world","spam","eggs"]
for count,word in enumerate(words, start=1):
print(word + "!")

Answer 2

The oroginal code does only give this output:

hello!
world!
spam!
eggs!

So no counter or enumerate is needed:

words = ["hello", "world", "spam", "eggs"]
for word in words:
print(word+'!')

#or with a comprehension:
[print(word + '!') for word in words]

Answer 3

Lothar I was only giving an example that there was a much easier method as you did... verses writing excessive code potentially bogging down the system.

Answer 4

BroFar, thanks for your reply. I can not understand why you say your code is much easier than mine, and why do you say that my code is potentially bogging down the system. I am always happy when I can learn something new. But i would appreciate if you could explain your statement a bit more with some facts and numbers like memory consumption and runtime behaviour or what whatever scale you are using. Thanks!