Python names in a list

Question

So I'm kinda new to python and was given a problem as follows: Given the list names , find the largest element in the list and swap it with the last element. For example, the list ["Carlton", "Quincy" "Adam", "Bernard"] would become ["Carlton", "Bernard", "Adam", "Quincy"] . Assume names is not empty

I thought about doing list Comprehension but I don't know how I would write that out in code

EDIT: Largest in this case would be the length of the string (sorry for not clarifying!!!))

You say 'find the largest element in the list'. What is 'largest' in this case? — dawg, Jun 26 '14 at 02:42
even if you consider the length of string carlton and bernard have same length. So which one to swap? — Illegal Argument, Jun 26 '14 at 03:03

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 26 '14 at 02:53

If by largest, you mean longest, then you could iterate over the list to find the longest name, and then swap them.

maxLen = 0
maxI = 0
for i in range(0, len(names)):
  if len(names[i]) > maxLen:
      maxLen = len(names[i])
      maxI = i

temp = names[-1]
names[-1] = names[maxI]
names[maxI] = temp

This is an overly convoluted way of doing it, but it's so drawn out to make it more obvious as to what's going on. With that said, you really should be more specific about what "largest" means.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:49

1

names = [foo, fooooo, bar, baaar]
a, b = i.index(max(name, key=len)), -1
i[b], i[a] = i[a], i[b]

Courtesy of this.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:49

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answered Jun 26 '14 at 02:56

user2963623

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Python names in a list

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