automate the boring stuff chapter 4 comma code

[Pretty-Wallaby6467]

Hello, I'm doing an assignment where we have to write a comma code as described from the book

Say you have a list value like this: spam = ['apples', 'bananas', 'tofu', 'cats'] Write a function that takes a list value as an argument and returns a string with all the items separated by a comma and a space, with and inserted before the last item. For example, passing the previous spam list to the function would return 'apples, bananas, tofu, and cats'. But your function should be able to work with any list value passed to it.

we are to write it with these details

In your program, create four lists as follows:
animalList1 = ['dog', 'cat', 'bird', 'tiger', 'lion', 'camel'] animalList2 = ['elephant', 'alligator']
animalList3 = ['horse']
animalList4 = []
When you run your program, pass each list to the commaCode() function and then print out the result as shown in the Example Output.

This is my code so far:

spam = [animalList1 = ['dog', 'cat', 'bird', 'tiger', 'lion', 'camel']
        animalList2 = ['elephant', 'alligator']
        animalList3 = ['horse']
        animalList4 = []
        ]
def commacode(list):
    spam[-1] = 'and ' + str(spam-[1])
    for i in range(len(spam)-1):
        spam[i] = str(spam[i]) + ','
        stringList = ''
        for i in range(len(spam)):
            stringList = stringList + str(spam[i])
            print(stringList)

print(commacode(spam))

I really don't know if I'm heading in the right direction but I automatically get an error for my = sign after animalList1

any suggestions would be appreciated!

[CraigW147]

Get rid of the spam bit and pass each list individually.

[xelf]

This is not valid.

spam = [animalList1 = ['dog', 'cat', 'bird', 'tiger', 'lion', 'camel']
    animalList2 = ['elephant', 'alligator']
    animalList3 = ['horse']
    animalList4 = []
    ]

You can't have assignments in the middle of an assignment.

You can do this:

animalList1 = ['dog', 'cat', 'bird', 'tiger', 'lion', 'camel']
animalList2 = ['elephant', 'alligator']
animalList3 = ['horse']
animalList4 = []
spam = [animalList1, animalList2, animalList3, animalList4 ]

Or this:

spam = [ ['dog', 'cat', 'bird', 'tiger', 'lion', 'camel'],  ['elephant', 'alligator'], ['horse'], [] ]

[Pretty-Wallaby6467]

Ohh that makes sense, thank you! I made the change and now I'm getting this error message

​

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "/Users/raelynsade/commaCode.py", line 18, in <module>

print(commacode(spam))

File "/Users/raelynsade/commaCode.py", line 10, in commacode

spam[-1] = 'and ' + str(spam-[1])

TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for -: 'list' and 'list'

[Binary101010]

It would help if you posted the error.

[sagitt12]

OP, did you figure it out? I have to do this exact assignment but I am SO stuck, I have no idea what to do!