Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

Python Introducing Lists Using Lists Continental

Posted by Joshua van Tongeren
Joshua van Tongeren
3,433 Points

How do I only print items that start with "A"?

I've looked at the videos again and can't find any reference to accessing characters in the string by index.. need help!

continents.py 
continents = [
    'Asia',
    'South America',
    'North America',
    'Africa',
    'Europe',
    'Antarctica',
    'Australia',
]
for continent in continents:
    print("* " + continent)

2 Answers

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

You can use indexing on a string to isolate a particular character. And index numbers start with 0, so the first character of "mystring" would be "mystring[0]".

Then you just need to compare that to "A".

I'll bet you can get it now, but write again if you need more help.

syalih
syalih
16,468 Points
syalih
syalih
16,468 Points

First Solution:

continents = [
    'Asia',
    'South America',
    'North America',
    'Africa',
    'Europe',
    'Antarctica',
    'Australia',
]
for continent in continents:
    if continent[0] == 'A':
        print("* " + continent)

Second Solution

There is method in python called startswith() #Checks if String Starts with the Specified String return True if match else return False.

continents = [
    'Asia',
    'South America',
    'North America',
    'Africa',
    'Europe',
    'Antarctica',
    'Australia',
]

for continent in continents:
    if continent.startswith("A"):
        print("* " + continent)