Why built-in functions are useful in Python - See It in Action

Why built-in functions are useful

📖 Scenario: Imagine you are organizing a small library of books. You want to quickly find out how many books you have, check if a certain book is in your collection, and get a list of all book titles sorted alphabetically.

🎯 Goal: You will create a list of book titles and use Python's built-in functions to count the books, check for a specific book, and sort the list. This will show how built-in functions save time and effort.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a list called books with these exact titles: 'Python Basics', 'Data Science', 'Machine Learning', 'Deep Learning'

Create a variable called check_book and set it to the string 'Data Science'

Use the built-in function len() to find the number of books and store it in total_books

Use the built-in operator in to check if check_book is in books and store the result in has_book

Use the built-in function sorted() to create a new list sorted_books with the book titles in alphabetical order

Print the values of total_books, has_book, and sorted_books exactly as shown

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Built-in functions are used every day in programming to handle common tasks like counting items, checking if something exists, or sorting data.

💼 Career

Knowing how to use built-in functions helps you write efficient and clean code, a skill valued in all programming jobs.

1

Create the list of books

Create a list called books with these exact titles: 'Python Basics', 'Data Science', 'Machine Learning', 'Deep Learning'

Python

# Create the list of books
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use square brackets [] to create a list and separate items with commas.

2

Set the book to check

Create a variable called check_book and set it to the string 'Data Science'

Python

books = ['Python Basics', 'Data Science', 'Machine Learning', 'Deep Learning']
# Create the variable check_book
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use = to assign the string to the variable.

3

Use built-in functions to analyze the list

Use the built-in function len() to find the number of books and store it in total_books. Then use the in operator to check if check_book is in books and store the result in has_book. Finally, use the built-in function sorted() to create a new list sorted_books with the book titles in alphabetical order.

Python

books = ['Python Basics', 'Data Science', 'Machine Learning', 'Deep Learning']
check_book = 'Data Science'
# Use len() to get total_books
# Use in to check has_book
# Use sorted() to get sorted_books
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Remember, len() counts items, in checks membership, and sorted() returns a new sorted list.

4

Print the results

Print the values of total_books, has_book, and sorted_books exactly as shown below.

Python

books = ['Python Basics', 'Data Science', 'Machine Learning', 'Deep Learning']
check_book = 'Data Science'
total_books = len(books)
has_book = check_book in books
sorted_books = sorted(books)
# Print total_books, has_book, and sorted_books
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use three separate print() statements, one for each variable.