{"id":21929,"date":"2020-08-31T11:42:28","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T18:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/careerkarma.com\/blog\/?p=21929"},"modified":"2023-12-01T03:59:01","modified_gmt":"2023-12-01T11:59:01","slug":"python-initialize-list-of-size-n","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/careerkarma.com\/blog\/python-initialize-list-of-size-n\/","title":{"rendered":"Python: Initialize List of Size N"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You cannot assign items to a list at positions that do not exist. This is because lists are indexed from zero and new index positions increment by one each time an item is added to a list.
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This means if you want to add items to a particular position in a list, there needs to be a placeholder value in that position.
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In this guide, we discuss how to initialize a list of size n<\/code> in Python. We walk through an example of how to do this so you can initialize lists with custom sizes in your programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Python: Initialize List of Size N Using Multiplication<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re going to build a leaderboard application that tracks the positions of the winners of a math tournament. This leaderboard will display the last eight students in the tournament.
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Students are added in descending order. This is because the first student in the list is the winner and the eighth student is in the eighth place.
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To start, create an empty list in Python<\/a>:
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leaderboard = [None] * 8\nprint(leaderboard)<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
This code creates a list object with eight values. Each of the values in the list will be equal to None.
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Our code returns our list of None values:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[None, None, None, None, None, None, None, None]<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
The value None could be substituted with any default value that you want. For instance, you could make each default value an empty string<\/a> (\u201c\u201d), the number zero (0), or something else.
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The quarter-final has just completed and two contestants have been eliminated. The following contestants can now be added to our leaderboard:
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