How does this line of code in this loop work?

Question

Can someone please explain to me what the last line of this loop does? It's a snippet from a word jumble program that is an example from a book I am learning from. Thank you.

import random
WORDS = ("python", "jumble", "easy", "difficult", "answer", "xylophone")
word = random.choice(WORDS)
correct = word
jumble = " "

while word:
  position = random.randrange(len(word))
  jumble += word[position]

  word = word[:position] + word[(position +1):]

[Slicing](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/509211/pythons-slice-notation) — Brian, Oct 27 '13 at 19:29
Insert ``print word`` inside the loop to see what is going on. — Dan Allan, Oct 27 '13 at 19:30
Please be more specific. I understand the [:position], its the next part and how the 2 interact that is confusing me... — Thomas Notaro, Oct 27 '13 at 19:30

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:07

2

It cuts out the character at index position:

>>> word = "python"
>>> position = 3
>>> 
>>> word[:position] + word[(position +1):]
'python'

Our string here was "python":

p  y  t  h  o  n
0  1  2  3  4  5
         ^

It therefore makes sense that for position = 3 the result is "python", with the 'h' missing.

In the future always try to test these things with a simplified example, usually they'll give you insight in to exactly what's going on.

See also: Python's slice notation

edited May 23 '17 at 12:07

Community

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answered Oct 27 '13 at 19:30

arshajii

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Thank you so much. I'm sorry for bothering you guys needlessly. I didn't think to do this. :-/ – Thomas Notaro Oct 27 '13 at 19:35
@ThomasNotaro Glad I could help. Don't forget to [accept an answer](http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5234/how-does-accepting-an-answer-work/5235#5235). – arshajii Oct 27 '13 at 19:36

How does this line of code in this loop work?

1 Answers1