[SOLVED] count the elements in a list

count the elements in a list

The problem is to count the elements in a list without using len(list).

My code:

def countFruits(crops):
  count = 0
  for fruit in crops:
    count = count + fruit
  return count

The error was: 'int' and 'str'

These are supposed to be the test cases that should run the program.

crops = ['apple', 'apple', 'orange', 'strawberry', 'banana','strawberry', 'apple']
count = countFruits(crops)
print count
7

Solution

Try this:

def countFruits(crops):
  count = 0
  for fruit in crops:
    count = count + 1
  return count

To calculate the length of the list you simply have to add 1 to the counter for each element found, ignoring the fruit. Alternatively, you can write the line with the addition like this:

count += 1

And because we're not actually using the fruit, we can write the for like this:

for _ in crops:

Making both modifications, here's the final version of the implementation:

def countFruits(crops):
    count = 0
    for _ in crops:
        count += 1
    return count