Exercises for Lesson 10

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Exercise 1: Conditionals in loops

Part a: Contains 0

Write a function containsZero that returns True if the provided list contains the number 0 and False otherwise.

def containsZero(numList):
    """
    Returns True if the list contains 0 as an element and False otherwise.

    numList: a list of numbers (each is an int)
    returns: a Boolean (True or False)
    """
    pass # replace with your code

Part b: Find negative

Write a function findNegative that returns the index of the first negative number in the provided list, or -1 if the list contains only non-negative numbers.

def findNegative(numList):
    """
    Returns the index of the first negative number in the list, or -1 if not found.

    numList: a list of numbers (ints or floats)
    returns: the index of the first negative number or -1 (int)
    """
    return -1 # replace with your code

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Exercise 2: Max of n

Extend our maxOfThree function to compute the maximum number in a list.

def maxOfList(numList):
    """
    Returns the maximum number in the given list.
    Assumes the list contains only numbers.
    """
    pass # replace with your code

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Exercise 3: More practice with conditionals

Further extend your maxOfList function to ask the user for numbers instead of taking in a list.

def maxOfN():
    """
    Asks the user for a series of numbers and returns the largest.

    Returns: the largest of the numbers the user enters
    """
    pass # replace with your code

Part a: use a for loop

Ask the user for n and then ask for each of the n values in a for loop.

Part b: use a while loop

Read ahead about while loops in Zelle sections 8.1-8.3.2 (pp. 243-252).

Then, change your maxOfN function to instead ask the user to enter numbers one at a time (rather than entering n first) or to enter nothing (just press enter, giving an empty string "") to quit.

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