I have to find the max element in a list while filtering out all of the items inside of it that aren't an integer or a float. So far I have this code and it seems to work except when giving the list [1, ]. I get an error saying that the list is empty and I can't find the max element.
def max_args(lst):
if len(lst) == 0:
return None
for item in lst:
if type(item) != [int or float]:
lst.remove(item)
return max(lst)
short solution:
def max_args(arr):
return max([item for item in arr if isinstance(item, int) or isinstance(item, float)])
['a','b','c','d']def max_args(lst): mx = [item for item in lst if isinstance(item, (int,float))] return max(mx) if mx else NoneYou can't check type like that. You need to check using isinstance. Also, you can't do a for loop and do lst.remove(item) the counter will get messed up.
I recommend you do a simple program to test it out. Here's an example for you.
x = [2,'c',4.0,{'d':5},[6,7],8,(9,10)]
print (x)
for i,val in enumerate (x):
print ('value at position : ',i, 'is : ', val)
if not (isinstance(val,int)):
x.remove(val)
The above code is supposed to iterate through each element of list x. However, as you can see, it skips 4.0 and [6,7]. The reason, you removed x[1] and it resulted in 4.0 getting assigned to position x[1]. Similarly for [6,7] It moved one position to the left but your for loop iteration couldn't catch it.
The output of the above code will be:
[2, 'c', 4.0, {'d': 5}, [6, 7], 8, (9, 10)]
value at position : 0 is : 2
value at position : 1 is : c
value at position : 2 is : {'d': 5}
value at position : 3 is : 8
value at position : 4 is : (9, 10)
Instead, your code should be as follows:
def max_args(lst):
print (lst)
i = 0
while i < len(lst):
if not (isinstance(lst[i], (int,float))):
lst.pop(i)
else:
i +=1
if len(lst) == 0:
return None
else:
return max(lst)
x = max_args([1,'a',3,'b',5.0])
print (x)
x = max_args([2,'c',4.0,{'d':5},[6,7],8,(9,10)])
print (x)
x = max_args(['a'])
print (x)
x = max_args([7])
print (x)
x = max_args([1,])
print (x)
x = max_args([1,2,3,4,5,6])
print (x)
The output will be as follows:
[1, 'a', 3, 'b', 5.0]
5.0
[2, 'c', 4.0, {'d': 5}, [6, 7], 8, (9, 10)]
8
['a']
None
[7]
7
[1]
1
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
6
[int or float]is a one-element list, containingint(since types are truthy). There is no conceivable object whosetype()is equal to this list. You wantisinstance(item, (int, float)).remove(x)option. That's bad coding.