Dictionaries 5 - First challenges

Download exercises zip 

We now propose some exercises without solution, do you accept the challenge?

Challenge - The Institute for Advanced Technotronics

✪ The Institute for Advanced Technotronics builds computing machines which require thousands of cables, They are categorized according to their section diameter, in intervals of two numbers. Each interval is associated with a color. The Institute records everything in a journal, but now it’s refurbishing the inventory and wants to build a better database. Write some code that given a list diameters of exactly 6 numbers and another list colors of exactly 3 strings, like

diameters = [5, 9, 13, 18, 27, 90]
colors = ['yellow', 'orange', 'red' ]

outputs a dictionary in this format:

{(5, 9)  : 'yellow',
 (13, 18): 'orange',
 (27, 90): 'red'}

DO NOT write constant list elements in your code (i.e. no 27)

[1]:

diameters,colors = [5, 9, 13, 18, 27, 90],  ['yellow', 'orange', 'red' ]

# write here

Challenge - Incredible Machines contest

✪ Each week the Institute promotes a contest. The participants in turns must inspect a new incredible machine and understand how it works. During each competition, the winner gains prize points which are then recorded in a registry, adding them to points gained in previous competitions.

The machines are shiny new, and the Institute is aware the first participant may experience some issue with machines being run for the first time. To compensate for this, the first participant is always granted an extra amount of points.

participants interact with the machine in alphabetical order

Write some code to MODIFY the registry with the winner prize, and extra amount of points for the first contestant. Print also the process.

DO NOT use loops
DO NOT write constant participants names (so no 'Carl'…)
Display participant order nicely

Example - given:

extra, winner, prize = 30, 'Marianne', 200

registry = { 'Lisa'    : 10,
             'Robert'  : 30,
             'Marianne': 20,
             'Carl'    : 20,
             'Sara'    : 60,
             'Suzanne' : 30}

your code should print

Participants order: Carl, Lisa, Marianne, Robert, Sara, Suzanne
Carl begins, receives extra grant of 30 points
Marianne won, receives 200 points

Updated registry is
{'Carl': 50,
 'Lisa': 10,
 'Marianne': 220,
 'Robert': 30,
 'Sara': 60,
 'Suzanne': 30}

HINT: to print nicely, use pprint:

from pprint import pprint
pprint(registry)

NOTE: pprint (and also jupyter) display keys in alphabetical order, but that’s just aesthetic: the original order in memory remains unchanged.

[2]:

extra, winner, prize = 30, 'Marianne', 200
registry = { 'Lisa'    : 10,
             'Robert'  : 30,
             'Marianne': 20,
             'Carl'    : 20,
             'Sara'    : 60,
             'Suzanne' : 30}

#extra, winner, prize, registry = 10, 'Sebastian', 300, {'Sebastian':40,'Alfio':20}

# write here

Challenge - Going nuts

✪ The Institute has a large storage room where component parts are kept. Sometimes mechanics come in a hurry yelling they need a given amount of some item.

Write some code which prints True if there are enough items in the storage, and False otherwise.

NOTE: a mechanic may ask for an item which is not recorded at all in the storage

DO NOT write string constants in your code (so no 'knobs' …)
DO NOT use loops
DO NOT use if statements
HINT if you don’t know how to do it, have a look at boolean evaluation order

[3]:

item, amount = 'knobs', 15   # True
#item, amount = 'knobs', 16  # False
#item, amount = 'nuts', 9    # True
#item, amount = 'rivets', 8  # False
#item, amount = 'clamps', 1  # False
#item, amount = 'pins', 1    # False

storage = {'nuts':11,
           'knobs':15,
           'pins':0,
           'bolts':7}

# write here

Challenge - Galactic storm

✪✪ A micro black hole passed through the solar system, bringing chaos into all moon orbits. The probes sent by the Institute recorded exactly 3 jumps of moons, where for each jump the last moon of one planet became the last moon of another.

Write some code which give given a dictionary galaxy mapping planets to their moons, MODIFIES galaxy according to another dictionary jumps

assume there cannot be chains of jumps (i.e. no Jupyter -> Mars -> Neptune)
DO NOT write constant planet names in your code (so no 'Jupyter')
DO NOT replace the assignments in galaxy (so no galaxy[planet] = ... )
DO NOT use search methods (so no .remove, .index …)