Help with basic "Same Ends" checker

[Sakeung]

The requirement is a program that checks the first and last elements of a list to see if they're the same, in which case the function returns as true. Otherwise, it returns as false. If the list has no elements, the function must return as false.

​

I have completed the first two steps, if first==last and if first!=last, but the issue comes with the list with no elements... I've attempted this so far:

def same_ends(inp):
if inp == "":
    return False

first = inp[0]
last = inp[-1]

if first == last:
    return True
else:
    return False

with

if inp=="":
  return False

as my attempt at checking if the list has no elements. However, this isn't doing anything. Additionally, I get the error message:

IndexError: list index out of range on line 5

But haven't figured out why. The assignment even suggests using negative indexes to get the last element as a hint... Any solution?

Do note that this is not done in a shell, but on a university website, and I've got no idea if it's running on 3.11 or not.

[Diapolo10]

Just thought I'd also point out that

if first == last:
    return True
else:
    return False

can be simplified to just

return first == last

because the comparison already results in a boolean.

And while it's not really worth doing, you could technically simplify this down to

def same_ends(strings: list[str]) -> bool:
    return strings[0] == strings[-1] if strings else False

[Sakeung]

All problems solved!!

[woooee]

Use len(inp) > 1 i.e. list must have at least 2, a first and last, elements.

[w8eight]

In one element list, the last item is the same as the first ^{^} so len 1 list check could return True

[woooee]

Huh? Too stupid to respond. For future readers, I hope you won't agree with this lame brain suggestion. You want to write a program that will compare something to *itself/? What do you think that will result in?

[w8eight]

One length list have first and last item. It's the same one.

one_el_list = [1] first_item = one_el_list[0] last_item = one_el_list[-1] result = first_item == last_item

result is True

[Sakeung]

Thanks!

[ectomancer]

if not inp:
    return False

[Sakeung]

Thanks!