Quiz 3 Study Guide

Quiz Study Guides are provided as a courtesy. You may work with other students on the questions, and ask questions about the guide during evening ninja help sessions, on piazza, or during meetings with faculty and staff. We do not provide full solutions to the quiz guides.

You are responsible for all material covered through the end of Week 5.

In addition to all concepts from Quiz 2, you should understand the following:

Python concepts

  • stack diagrams

  • scope of a variable

  • function definition

  • function call

  • function parameters: defining and calling

  • definite for loop

  • indefinite while loop

  • mutable and immutable types

  • list manipulation (accumulators, indexing, etc)

Practice problems

  1. Write a program which asks the user for 4 words and then prints them in reverse order.

    Here’s an example run of the program:

    word 1: hello
    word 2: zebra
    word 3: unicorn
    word 4: corgi
    corgi
    unicorn
    zebra
    hello
  2. Write a function called avgList that, given a list of numbers, calculates and returns their average. For example, avgList([5, 10, 5, 4]) should return 6. Write a main function to test the function in a complete program.

  3. Consider the following program:

    def main():
        print("in main")
        test = "whee"
        check = "e"
        answer = helper(test, check)
        print("the answer is %d" % (answer))
    
    def helper(word, letter):
        print("in helper")
        print("word: %s" % (word))
        print("letter: %s" % (letter))
        x = 0
        for i in range(len(word)):
            if word[i] == letter:
                x = x+1
    
        # draw stack here, just before return
        return x
    
    main()
    1. Draw the function stack as it would look just prior to returning from helper. [answer]

    2. Which variables are in scope at this same point in the code?

    3. What is the program’s output (i.e. what does it print when the program is run)?

    4. What does the helper function compute?

    5. What would helper("moobaalalala", "a") return?

    6. What would helper("zoo", "a") return?

  4. Write a program that reads in student grades from the user, until the user enters a -1. After reading in the -1, the program should compute and display the average grade.

    Please enter your grades below.
    Enter a -1 when you are all done...
    
    grade  1: 98
    grade  2: 87
    grade  3: 65
    grade  4: 95
    grade  5: 80
    grade  6: -1
    
    The average of those 5 grades is 85.000
  5. Analyze the following code:

    m = ["t","i","m","e"]
    s = "time"
    m[1] = "a"
    s[1] = "a"

    What happens when this code is executed? What are the values of m and s afterward?

  6. Consider the following program:

    def main():
       values = [2,3,4,10]
       print(values)
       result = mystery(values)
       print("result: %d" % result)
       print(values)
    
    def mystery(L):
       total = 0
       for i in range(len(L)):
          if is_odd(L[i]):
             L[i] = L[i]*2
          total = total + L[i]
    
       # Q2: what does the stack look like at this point?
       return total
    
    def is_odd(number):
       # Q1: draw stack to this point (first time function is called)
       if number % 2 == 0:
          return False
       else:
          return True
    
    main()
    1. Draw the function stack as it would look the first time is_odd() is called. [answer]

    2. Draw the function stack as it would look just prior to returning from mystery().

    3. What variables are in scope at these same points in the code?

    4. What is the program’s output (i.e. what does it print when the program is run)?

    5. What does the mystery() function do?

  7. Write a function called getInt that has two parameters, lo and hi. The function should prompt the user to enter an integer between lo and hi (inclusive), and then return the value entered. Your function should not return until the user enters a valid integer in the range lo to hi. You may assume both lo and hi are positive integers.

    Now add a main() function that calls getInt to get an integer from 1-10. Your main() should then print out "Boo!" that many times.

    Here’s an example run of the full program:

    Please enter an integer from 1-10: 99
    Please enter an integer from 1-10: -40
    Please enter an integer from 1-10: zebra
    Please enter an integer from 1-10: 4
    Boo!
    Boo!
    Boo!
    Boo!