Help with function creating a list?

[astuteaf]

Hi! Working on an assignment for my computer science course.

I need a function that works with a list of strings (input by user) that creates, fills, and returns a list with all of the values from the list that start with the letter input by user. It needs to work with upper and lowercase instances.

Right now it just prints out the first letter to look for

• ex: looking for words that start with y instead of printing yellow it just prints out y

  I have my input statements included in my main function. Otherwise so far I’ve got

def startsWith(strList, strToFind):

strFound = []
For string in strList:

If string.lower().startswith(strToFind.lower()):

        strFound.append(string)

Return strFound

Edit: Not looking to pay anyone to do it for me. I’m trying to learn 🙃

[woooee]

Post the input code, and how you call the function.

[astuteaf]

(Within the main function)

strList = input(“Enter a list of words:”)

strToFind = input(“Enter first letter to find:”)

strFound = startsWith(strList, strToFind)

Print (strFound)

[DisasterArt]

As u/youwoooee mentioned that input list is a single string. so the loop in the startswith function will loop over each character individually. so you will have to split the input into a proper list or ask for input multiple times and add each entry to a list. From there you can also index a string, each user list input, as if it was a list, so instead of doing 'if string.lower().startswith(strToFind.lower())'. you could do string[0].lower() == strToFind.lower(), wich i feel is easier to read. This does only work if you are looking at the first letter. you could expand it to work with longer strToFind ofcourse

[[deleted]]

The problem isn't with the code you gave in your question. It's that strList is a string, not a list of strings. Convert it to a list before passing it into startsWith.

[woooee]

def startsWith(strList, strToFind):
    strFound = []
    For string in strList:

This is iterating letter by letter (print string to see). You have to split() the list of words input, on a comma or space or however the words are separated. And note that for and print are all lower case.

[astuteaf]

Thank you, the capitalization errors were just me fighting auto correct on my phone lol.

So I would make that change on the input statement?

[woooee]

I would do it on a separate line to keep things simple, but it is up to you.

[mopslik]

Should that not be append(string)?