Python - Smallest Length String

Python - Smallest Length String

In this tutorial, we will learn how to find the string with the smallest length from a list of strings.

Scenario:

Suppose we have a list of strings str_list = ["apple", "banana", "kiwi", "grape"]. Our goal is to find the string with the smallest length. In this case, the expected output would be "kiwi".

Steps:

  1. Use Python's built-in min function.
  2. Pass a lambda function as the key argument to the min function to retrieve the length of each string in the list.
  3. Retrieve the string with the smallest length.

Code:

Let's implement the above steps:

def find_smallest_string(str_list): # Find the string with the smallest length using the min function and a lambda function return min(str_list, key=lambda x: len(x)) # Test str_list = ["apple", "banana", "kiwi", "grape"] print(find_smallest_string(str_list)) # Output: "kiwi"

Note:

If there are multiple strings with the smallest length, this function will return the first one it encounters.

Alternative approach using a loop:

def find_smallest_string_loop(str_list): if not str_list: # Check for an empty list return None smallest = str_list[0] # Initialize with the first string for s in str_list: if len(s) < len(smallest): smallest = s return smallest # Test print(find_smallest_string_loop(str_list)) # Output: "kiwi"

Summary:

In this tutorial, we learned how to find the string with the smallest length from a list of strings using two methods: a concise method with Python's built-in min function and a more manual approach using a loop. Both methods achieve the same result, and you can choose based on your preference or specific requirements.

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