Bucles en

Acerca de Bucles

Python tiene dos construcciones de bucle. Los bucles while para iteraciones indefinidas (no contadas) y los bucles for para iteraciones definidas (contadas). Las palabras clave break, continue y else ayudan a personalizar el comportamiento de los bucles. range() y enumerate() ayudan con el conteo y la indexación de los bucles.

While

Los bucles while se ejecutan de forma continua mientras la loop expression o «prueba» se evalúe como True en un boolean context, y se detienen cuando se evalúa como False:

# Lists are considered "truthy" in a boolean context if they
# contain one or more values, and "falsy" if they are empty.

>>> placeholders = ["spam", "ham", "eggs", "green_spam", "green_ham", "green_eggs"]

>>> while placeholders:
...     print(placeholders.pop(0))
...
'spam'
'ham'
'eggs'
'green_spam'
'green_ham'
'green_eggs'

For

El for loop básico de Python se describe mejor como un for each que recorre los valores de cualquier objeto iterable y termina cuando no se devuelve ningún valor al llamar a next() (lo que lanza una StopIteration).

>>> word_list = ["bird", "chicken", "barrel", "bongo"]

>>> for word in word_list:
...    if word.startswith("b"):
...        print(f"{word.title()} starts with a B.")
...    else:
...        print(f"{word.title()} doesn't start with a B.")
...
'Bird starts with a B.'
'Chicken doesn\'t start with a B.'
'Barrel starts with a B.'
'Bongo starts with a B.'

El objeto de secuencia range()

Cuando no se da un iterable concreto, se usa la secuencia especial range() como contador de bucle. range() requiere un int que marca el final de la secuencia (stop) y puede aceptar opcionalmente los parámetros start y step. Si no se proporciona un número start, la secuencia empieza por 0. Los objetos range() son perezosos (los valores se generan cuando se piden), admiten todas las operaciones comunes de secuencia y ocupan una cantidad fija de memoria, sin importar lo larga que sea la secuencia especificada. Curiosamente, range() no es un iterador y se puede usar en muchos contextos que no son bucles, donde se necesita una secuencia de números.

# Here we use range to produce some numbers, rather than creating a list of them in memory.
# The values will start with 1 and stop *before* 7.

>>> for number in range(1, 7):
...    if number % 2 == 0:
...       print(f"{number} is even.")
...    else:
...       print(f"{number} is odd.")
'1 is odd.'
'2 is even.'
'3 is odd.'
'4 is even.'
'5 is odd.'
'6 is even.'

# range() can also take a *step* parameter.
# Here we use range to produce only the "odd" numbers, starting with 3 and stopping *before* 15.

>>> for number in range(3, 15, 2):
...    if number % 2 == 0:
...       print(f"{number} is even.")
...    else:
...       print(f"{number} is odd.")
...
'3 is odd.'
'5 is odd.'
'7 is odd.'
'9 is odd.'
'11 is odd.'
'13 is odd.'

Valores e índices con enumerate()

Si se necesitan tanto los valores como los índices, la función integrada enumerate(<iterable>) devuelve un iterator sobre pares (index, value):

>>> word_list = ["bird", "chicken", "barrel", "apple"]

# *index* and *word* are the loop variables.
# Loop variables can be any valid python name.

>>> for index, word in enumerate(word_list):
...    if word.startswith("b"):
...        print(f"{word.title()} (at index {index}) starts with a B.")
...    else:
...        print(f"{word.title()} (at index {index}) doesn't start with a B.")
...
'Bird (at index 0) starts with a B.'
'Chicken (at index 1) doesn\'t start with a B.'
'Barrel (at index 2) starts with a B.'
'Apple (at index 3) doesn\'t start with a B.'


# The same method can be used as a "lookup" for pairing items between two lists.
# Of course, if the lengths or indexes don't line up, this doesn't work.

>>> word_list = ["cat", "chicken", "barrel", "apple", "spinach"]
>>> category_list = ["mammal", "bird", "thing", "fruit", "vegetable"]

>>> for index, word in enumerate(word_list):
...    print(f"{word.title()} is in category: {category_list[index]}.")
...
'Cat is in category: mammal.'
'Chicken is in category: bird.'
'Barrel is in category: thing.'
'Apple is in category: fruit.'
'Spinach is in category: vegetable.'

La función enumerate(<iterable>) también admite un start para que el conteo del índice empiece en un número distinto:

# Here, the index count will start at 1.
>>> for position, word in enumerate(word_list, start=1):
...    if word.startswith("b"):
...        print(f"{word.title()} (at position {position}) starts with a B.")
...    else:
...        print(f"{word.title()} (at position {position}) doesn't start with a B.")
...
'Bird (at position 1) starts with a B.'
'Chicken (at position 2) doesn\'t start with a B.'
'Barrel (at position 3) starts with a B.'
'Apple (at position 4) doesn\'t start with a B.'

Modificar el comportamiento de los bucles

La palabra clave continue permite saltar directamente a la siguiente iteración del bucle:

>>> word_list = ["bird", "chicken", "barrel", "bongo", "sliver", "apple", "bear"]
...
... # This will skip *bird*, at index 0
... for index, word in enumerate(word_list):
...     if index == 0:
...         continue
...     if word.startswith("b"):
...         print(f"{word.title()} (at index {index}) starts with a b.")
...
'Barrel (at index 2) starts with a b.'
'Bongo (at index 3) starts with a b.'
'Bear (at index 6) starts with a b.'

La palabra clave break (como en muchos lenguajes de la familia de C) permite detener la iteración y «salir» del loop más interno que la contiene:

>>>  word_list = ["bird", "chicken", "barrel", "bongo", "sliver", "apple"]

>>> for index, word in enumerate(word_list):
...    if word.startswith("b"):
...        print(f"{word.title()} (at index {index}) starts with a B.")
...    elif word == "sliver":
...        break
...    else:
...        print(f"{word.title()} doesn't start with a B.")
... print("loop broken.")
...
'Bird (at index 0) starts with a B.'
'Chicken doesn\'t start with a B.'
'Barrel (at index 2) starts with a B.'
'Bongo (at index 3) starts with a B.'
'loop broken.'

La cláusula else del bucle es exclusiva de Python y sirve para acciones de «cierre» o «conclusión» cuando la iteración se ha agotado. Las instrucciones que siguen a la palabra clave else no se ejecutan si la iteración termina mediante break:

>>> word_list = ["bird", "chicken", "barrel", "bongo", "sliver", "apple"]

# Using enumerate to get both an index and a value.

>>> for index, word in enumerate(word_list):
...    word = word.title()
...    if word.startswith("B"):
...        print(f"{word} (at index {index}) starts with a B.")
...
... # This executes once *StopIteration* is raised and 
... # There are no more items to iterate through.
... # Note the indentation, which lines up with the for keyword.
... else:
...    print(f"Found the above b-words, out of {len(word_list)} words in the word list.")
...
'Bird (at index 0) starts with a B.'
'Barrel (at index 2) starts with a B.'
'Bongo (at index 3) starts with a B.'
'Found the above b-words, out of 6 words in the word list.'


# Terminating a loop via *break* will bypass the loop *else* clause

>>> for index, word in enumerate(word_list):
...    word = word.title()
...    if word.startswith("B"):
...       print(f"{word} (at index {index}) starts with a B.")
...    if word.startswith("S"):
...        print("Found an S, stopping iteration.")
...        break

... # This statement does not run, because a *break* was triggered.
... else:
...    print(f"Found the above b-words, out of {len(word_list)} words in the word list.")
...
'Bird (at index 0) starts with a B.'
'Barrel (at index 2) starts with a B.'
'Bongo (at index 3) starts with a B.'
'Found an S, stopping iteration.'