Tanisha Talks Tech

Python Enumerate

Tanisha Payne — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 01:32:40 GMT

The enumerate() function returns a sequence of (index, item) tuples.

Enumerate takes two parameters: iterable and start.

enumerate(iterable, start)

Iterable - the collection of items to be returned as an enumerate object

Start - starting index for the enumerate object. If the start value is omitted the default value is 0

How to Use enumerate() in python

countries = ["France", "ROC", "United States of America", "United States of America", "Italy", "ROC", "Canada", "Spain", "Canada", "Great Britian"]

list(enumerate(countries))

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
[(0, 'France'),
 (1, 'ROC'),
 (2, 'United States of America'),
 (3, 'United States of America'),
 (4, 'Italy'),
 (5, 'ROC'),
 (6, 'Canada'),
 (7, 'Spain'),
 (8, 'Canada'),
 (9, 'Great Britian')]

In our output, we are given a list of tuples that return the index and its corresponding item.

📝 Note: Because we didn’t declare a start value our index is a default of 0.

For Loop

for index, country in enumerate(countries, start=1):
    print(index, country)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1 France
2 ROC
3 United States of America
4 United States of America
5 Italy
6 ROC
7 Canada
8 Spain
9 Canada
10 Great Britian

You’ll most likely encounter the enumerate function using a for loop to iterate through objects.

Our item in this for loop is ranked placed countries.

In real life, we associate gold, silver, and bronze medals with first, second, and third place. So the start parameter has been changed to 1 to reflect those places in our output.

Why use enumerate?

A more complex example is one in which we want to find a country's rankings for a single event given an ordered list. Since multiple people from one country can qualify for an event we can create a hashmap.

#Store the index position of duplicate items
countries = ["France", "ROC", "United States of America", "United States of America",
                   "Italy", "ROC", "Canada", "Spain", "Canada", "Great Britian"]

country_map = {country:[] for country in set(countries)}

print(country_map)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

{'Italy': [], 'Spain': [], 'France': [], 'Great Britian': [], 'United States of America': [], 'ROC': [], 'Canada': []}

Once a hashmap has been created you can use enumerate in a for loop to store the index for each occurrence of a country's ranked place.

#Use enumerate to store the index for each occurence
for index, country in enumerate(countries, start=1):
    country_map[country].append(index)

country_map

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

{'Italy': [5],
 'Spain': [8],
 'France': [1],
 'Great Britian': [10],
 'United States of America': [3, 4],
 'ROC': [2, 6],
 'Canada': [7, 9]}

Now that we have a dictionary with all our countries and their ranking you can easily find out the rankings of particular countries.

country_map['United States of America']

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[3, 4]

Here we see the United States of America placed in both 3rd and 4th in the Beijing 2022 Figure Skating Ice Dance event.

One way that I remember when I need to use enumerate is when I encounter a problem in which I need to count and assign a number to items in a list in order.

What are some other ways enumerate method can be used? Feel to leave me feedback in the comments. Happy Coding! 🌟💻

source: https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/beijing-2022/results/figure-skating/ice-dance

How I landed a job in tech during the pandemic

Tanisha Payne — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 23:24:56 GMT

The year 2020 will no doubt be a remembered year for us all. Not only was this the year a global pandemic broke out. It was also the year I decided to travel(and get stuck overseas), finish my bachelor’s degree, and search for a job. On the positive side, schools and companies were forced to make the push to remote work. Most tech companies were already in a position to thrive. I took advantage of all the resources available online that I could everything from Twitter, Linkedin, freecodecamp, and more.

Make connections

The first resource I took advantage of outside of the endless technical videos on Youtube and articles was LinkedIn. Alongside brushing up on the technical knowledge I needed I began working on reaching out to my already established network, my friends. When I was in school whenever someone mentioned networking to me my mind would often immediately think about the professionals I know, usually in higher positions in the career field that I aspired to work in, and often times that answer was usually one or none. This is often the answer among people like myself who are at an entry-level or switching careers. Reaching out to managers and recruiters cold when you are entry-level or have no experience in the field can be quite intimidating. So I made it a point to keep in touch with my peers, most of whom were able to land internships and jobs at tech companies I was also interested in. While they were a huge help in making referrals for me I also did the thing I dreaded doing. Reaching out and connecting with recruiters, hiring managers, and engineers. It actually didn’t go as horrible as I thought it would. If you don’t get a response right away don’t take it personally. Also, be sure that you are optimizing these conversations by asking meaningful questions. Don’t just ask for a job, this is an opportunity to find out from an insider what it's like to work at that company.

What do you value?

After reaching out to my peers and having them refer me to recruiters or managers at their companies I began composing my own list of companies that I desired to work at. Applying for jobs as an entry-level candidate can be daunting! But you do have a choice over the type of company you would like to work for that aligns with your needs and values. Research and look up the companies values. It’s important to remember that you are also interviewing companies to see if they are a good fit for you. Figure out what’s really important to you, paid time off, remote work, health benefits, opportunities for growth, and continuing education. Knowing what you want and need before starting the interviewing process can help you to craft better questions for the interview.

Job Title Doesn’t Always Matter

While I talked about how it is important to know what you are looking for, it’s also important not to get too attached to a title. Throughout your career, your job title can and will most likely change several times. Pay attention to skills you already possess and the skills you wish to learn. Employers will often have a long list of requirements and wanted skills. It’s okay not to check off every box listed on the posting. Even if you only possess two of the skills listed and the others are of interest to you, go for it!

Shortlist of Resources

Career Networking

Questions to ask during an interview if you can’t come up with any https://www.themuse.com/advice/51-interview-questions-you-should-be-asking

Coding skills

freecodecamp
hackerrank
codewars

People on Twitter who post great advice and resources in tech!

@RandallKanna @DThompsonDev @baddiesintech @catalinmpit @techgirl1908 @kelseyhightower @GergelyOrosz @swyx

There are so many resources I used and people who I reached out to during this process that would make this resource list quite long. These are just a few that jump-started me. I encourage you to find your own. Remember that networking goes beyond reaching out when you need a job, the people who you reach out to could also potentially become mentors or a support system within the industry in the future.