[Tutor] IndexError: list index out of range

[Nidian Job-Smith]

To answer your questions  Steven
What is the intention of this function? The name given doesn't mean 
anything to me. The parameters "names" and "step" don't seem meaningful.

I can see what the function does: it deletes bits of something, probably 
a list, in a convoluted way, eventually causing an error. But I can't 
tell what it is *supposed* to do.


Given the example you show later on:

survivor(["Andrew", "Brenda", "Craig", "Deidre", "Edward",
"Felicity", "Greg", "Harriet"], 4)


what should the result be?



To answer your questions Steven

 

What is the intention of this function? The name
given doesn't mean 

anything to me. The parameters "names" and "step" don't
seem meaningful.





The intention of the programme is to remove every Nth person from a
list. N (defined as steps) is inputted by the user.



I can see what the function does: it deletes bits of something,
probably 

a list, in a convoluted way, eventually causing an error. But I can't 

tell what it is *supposed* to do.





Given the example you show later on:



survivor(["Andrew", "Brenda", "Craig",
"Deidre", "Edward",

"Felicity", "Greg", "Harriet"], 4)





what should the result be?

 

In the example 

Survivor (["Andrew", "Brenda",
"Craig", "Deidre", "Edward",
"Felicity", "Greg", "Harriet"], 3)

He answer should be ‘Greg’
> Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2011 10:02:01 +1100
> From: steve at pearwood.info
> To: tutor at python.org
> Subject: Re: [Tutor] IndexError: list index out of range
> 
> John wrote:
> > 
> > Hi all,
> > 
> > I have wriiten the following code:
> > [Segment]
> > 
> >>>>  def survivor(names, step):
> >     index = step - 1
> >     next = names
> >     while len(next)>  1:
> >         next.remove (next[index])
> 
> 
> What is the intention of this function? The name given doesn't mean 
> anything to me. The parameters "names" and "step" don't seem meaningful.
> 
> I can see what the function does: it deletes bits of something, probably 
> a list, in a convoluted way, eventually causing an error. But I can't 
> tell what it is *supposed* to do.
> 
> 
> Given the example you show later on:
> 
> survivor(["Andrew", "Brenda", "Craig", "Deidre", "Edward",
>      "Felicity", "Greg", "Harriet"], 4)
> 
> 
> what should the result be?
> 
> 
> > However when ever i run it i get this error message:
> > 
> > Traceback (most recent call last):
> >   File "<pyshell#46>", line 1, in<module>
> >     survivor(["Andrew", "Brenda", "Craig", "Deidre", "Edward",
> > "Felicity", "Greg", "Harriet"], 4)
> >   File "<pyshell#45>", line 5, in survivor
> >     next.remove (next[index])
> > IndexError: list index out of range
> > 
> > Any ideas about whats causing this error?
> 
> 
> You attempt to delete an item that doesn't exist.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Steven
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