Automate the boring stuff with Python: Comma Code

Question

Currently working my way through this beginners book and have completed one of the practice projects \'Comma Code\' which asks the user to construct a program which:

Answer 1

I used a different approach. I am a beginner, so I don't know if it's the cleanest way to do it. To me it seemed as the most simple way:

spam = ['apples', 'pizza', 'dogs', 'cats']

def comma(items):
    for i in range(len(items) -2):
        print(items[i], end=", ")# minor adjustment from one beginner to another: to make it cleaner, simply move the ', ' to equal 'end'. the print statement should finish like this --> end=', '
    print(items[-2] + 'and ' + items[-1]) 

comma(spam)

Which will give the output:

apples, pizza, dogs and cats

Answer 2

This is what I came up with. There's probably a much cleaner way to write this, but this should work with any sized list as long as there's at least one element in the list.

spam = ['apples', 'oranges' 'tofu', 'cats']
def CommaCode(list):
    if len(list) > 1 and len(list) != 0:
        for item in range(len(list) - 1):
            print(list[item], end=", ")
        print('and ' + list[-1])
    elif len(list) == 1:
        for item in list:
            print(item)
    else:
        print('List must contain more than one element')
CommaCode(spam)

Answer 3

I didn't dig through all the answers but I did see someone suggested using join. I agree but since this question didn't come in the book before learning joins my answer was this.

def To_String(my_list)
    try:
        for index, item in enumerate(my_list):
            if index == 0:                       # at first index
                myStr = str(item) + ', '
            elif index < len(my_list) - 1:       # after first index
                myStr += str(item) + ', '
            else:
                myStr += 'and ' + str(item)      # at last index
        return myStr  

    except NameError:
        return 'Your list has no data!'

spam = ['apples', 'bananas', 'tofu', 'cats']

my_string = To_String(spam)

print(my_string)

Result:

apples, bananas, tofu, and cats

Answer 4

Just a simple code. I think we don't need to use any fancy stuff here. :p

def getList(list):
    value = ''
    for i in range(len(list)):
        if i == len(list) - 1:
            value += 'and '+list[i]
        else:
            value += list[i] + ', '
    return value

spam = ['apples', 'bananas', 'tofu', 'cats']

print('### TEST ###')
print(getList(spam))

Answer 5

Why is everyone putting so complex codes.

See my code below. Its the most simple and easiest to understand at one go even for a beginner.

import random

def comma_code(subject):

     a = (len(list(subject)) - 1)

     for i in range(0, len(list(subject))):

          if i != a:
               print(str(subject[i]) + ', ', end="")

          else:
              print('and '+ str(subject[i]))            


spam = ['apples','banana','tofu','cats']

after coding the above, just type comma_code(spam) in the python shell and you are good to go. Enjoy