How do I return element from a list based on user input

Question

I'm supposed to make a function with a list and a title as a string, and then return the item from the list, based on the title.

def find_appointment(lst, title = ""):
    if title in lst:
        funn = lst.find(title)
        return funn
    else:
        print("No result")

appointments = ["Zoo: 11.03.22", "Shopping: 13.08.22", "Christmas: 24.12.22", "Funeral: 25.12.22"]
find_appointment(appointments, "Zoo")

I hoped to get "Zoo: 11.03.22", but instead got "No result"

The list here is just a random one I made up. In the actual list I won't know the positions of the items.

Does this answer your question? [Finding a substring within a list in Python](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13779526/finding-a-substring-within-a-list-in-python) — mkrieger1, Oct 26 '22 at 16:34
Ahh ok, thank you. I want it to be like a searchword to find the correct appointment. Do you maybe have an idea how I can do that? Thanks — HappilyStupid, Oct 26 '22 at 16:35
See this : https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4843158/how-to-check-if-a-string-is-a-substring-of-items-in-a-list-of-strings (the link posted above will lead to it). — Swifty, Oct 26 '22 at 16:37

Ziv Wu · Accepted Answer · 2022-10-26T16:52:39.493

1

Here is my solution:

def find_appointment(lst, title = ""):
    for i in lst:
        if title in i:
            return index
        else:
            print("No result")

appointments = ["Zoo: 11.03.22", "Shopping: 13.08.22", "Christmas: 24.12.22", "Funeral: 25.12.22"]
print(find_appointment(appointments, "Zoo"))

edited Oct 26 '22 at 16:52

answered Oct 26 '22 at 16:42

Ziv Wu

36
3

`index` is a very bad name for the loop variable – jonrsharpe Oct 26 '22 at 16:46
Could you explain why – Ziv Wu Oct 26 '22 at 22:44
`i` is not much better. When you loop over a list in Python, as your actual _usage_ of the variable suggests, you **don't** get the index: you get the _value_. – jonrsharpe Oct 26 '22 at 22:59

monos · Answer 2 · 2022-10-26T16:37:06.207

0

What you need to use is a dictionary. So like:

appointments = {"Zoo":"11.03.22", "Shopping": "13.08.22"}
something_to_find = "Zoo"

Then to find something in the dictionary:

def find_something(lst, title=" "):
    print(lst[title])

find_something(appointments,something_to_find)

So yea you might want to read up on dictionaries. W3schools is a good place to start [https://www.w3schools.com/python/python_dictionaries.asp]

edited Oct 26 '22 at 16:37

answered Oct 26 '22 at 16:34

monos

11
2

Of course this would work, but that's not really the question. OP needs an answer that works with the way their list is constructed. – Swifty Oct 26 '22 at 16:36
Well I don't know OP so maybe they haven't come across dictionaries before and they can actually use a dictionary in their code instead of taking substrings out. – monos Oct 26 '22 at 16:48

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 26 '22 at 16:52

def find_appointment(lst, title = ""):
     for i in lst:
         if title in i:
            a=title.find(title)
            return a
         else:
            print("No result")
appointments = ["Zoo: 11.03.22", "Shopping: 13.08.22", "Christmas: 24.12.22", 
"Funeral: 25.12.22"] 
print(find_appointment(appointments, "Zoo"))
#hope this helps. in order to iterate through all elements in list. we have to 
use a loop. once the value is found we can get its index by find method of 
string.

How do I return element from a list based on user input

3 Answers3