Description:
Description:
There are some special functions in Python.
These functions are unique in Python.
Using these function can shorten our scripts.
These functions are:
all, any, filter, map, range, reduce, sum, zip.
Following are detail descriptions:
all(iterable)
Return True if all elements of the iterable are true. Equivalent to:
def all(iterable):
for element in iterable:
if not element:
return False
return True
New in version 2.5.
any(iterable)
Return True if any element of the iterable is true. Equivalent to:
def any(iterable):
for element in iterable:
if element:
return True
return False
New in version 2.5.
filter( function, iterable)
Construct a list from those elements of iterable for which function returns true. iterable may be either a sequence, a container which supports iteration, or an iterator, If iterable is a string or a tuple, the result also has that type; otherwise it is always a list. If function is None, the identity function is assumed, that is, all elements of iterable that are false are removed.
Note that filter(function, iterable) is equivalent to [item for item in iterable if function(item)] if function is not None and [item for item in iterable if item] if function is None.
map(function, iterable, …)
Apply function to every item of iterable and return a list of the results. If additional iterable arguments are passed, function must take that many arguments and is applied to the items from all iterables in parallel. If one iterable is shorter than another it is assumed to be extended with None items. If function is None, the identity function is assumed; if there are multiple arguments, map() returns a list consisting of tuples containing the corresponding items from all iterables (a kind of transpose operation). The iterable arguments may be a sequence or any iterable object; the result is always a list.
range( [start, ] stop[, step])
This is a versatile function to create lists containing arithmetic progressions. It is most often used in for loops. The arguments must be plain integers. If the step argument is omitted, it defaults to 1. If the start argument is omitted, it defaults to 0. The full form returns a list of plain integers [start, start + step, start + 2 * step, …]. If step is positive, the last element is the largest start + i * step less than stop; if step is negative, the last element is the smallest start + i * step greater than stop. step must not be zero (or else ValueError is raised).
Apply function of two arguments cumulatively to the items of iterable, from left to right, so as to reduce the iterable to a single value. For example, reduce(lambda x, y: x+y, [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]) calculates ((((1+2)+3)+4)+5). The left argument, x, is the accumulated value and the right argument, y, is the update value from the iterable. If the optional initializer is present, it is placed before the items of the iterable in the calculation, and serves as a default when the iterable is empty. If initializer is not given and iterable contains only one item, the first item is returned.
sum(iterable[ , start])
Sums start and the items of an iterable from left to right and returns the total. start defaults to 0. The iterable's items are normally numbers, and are not allowed to be strings. The fast, correct way to concatenate a sequence of strings is by calling ''.join(sequence). Note that sum(range( n), m) is equivalent to reduce(operator.add, range(n), m) New in version 2.3.
zip( [iterable, …])
This function returns a list of tuples, where the i-th tuple contains the i-th element from each of the argument sequences or iterables. The returned list is truncated in length to the length of the shortest argument sequence. When there are multiple arguments which are all of the same length, zip() is similar to map() with an initial argument of None. With a single sequence argument, it returns a list of 1-tuples. With no arguments, it returns an empty list. New in version 2.0.