How to sum items in a for loop in python?

Question

I have the following code:

dict = {
    'a': 1, 'b': 3, 'c': 3, 'd': 2, 'e': 1, 'f': 4, 'g': 2, 'h': 4, 'i': 1, 
    'j': 8, 'k': 5, 'l': 1, 'm': 3, 'n': 1, 'o': 1, 'p': 3, 'q': 10, 
    'r': 1, 's': 1, 't': 1, 'u': 1, 'v': 4, 'w': 4, 'x': 8, 'y': 4, 'z': 10
}

word = 'banana'

for letter in word:
     print dict[letter]

I get the following output

3
1
1
1
1

How can I add these values?

That is how can I print the output as 8

Answer 1

You can use sum and a generator expression :

>>> # Please don't name a variable `dict` -- it overshadows the built-in
>>> dct = { 'a': 1, 'b': 3, 'c': 3, 'd': 2, 'e': 1, 'f': 4, 'g': 2, 'h': 4, 'i': 1, 'j': 8, 'k': 5, 'l': 1, 'm': 3, 'n': 1, 'o': 1, 'p': 3, 'q': 10, 'r': 1, 's': 1, 't': 1, 'u': 1, 'v': 4, 'w': 4, 'x': 8, 'y': 4, 'z': 10 }
>>> word = 'banana'
>>> print sum(dct[letter] for letter in word)
8
>>>

---

Note that the above solution assumes that all of the characters in word can be found in dct . If this isn't always the case, then you can use dict.get to avoid a KeyError :

>>> dct = { 'a': 1, 'b': 3, 'c': 3, 'd': 2, 'e': 1, 'f': 4, 'g': 2, 'h': 4, 'i': 1, 'j': 8, 'k': 5, 'l': 1, 'm': 3, 'n': 1, 'o': 1, 'p': 3, 'q': 10, 'r': 1, 's': 1, 't': 1, 'u': 1, 'v': 4, 'w': 4, 'x': 8, 'y': 4, 'z': 10 }
>>> word = '$banana1'
>>> print sum(dct.get(letter, 0) for letter in word)
8
>>>

Answer 2

Here is another way that you can sum the items in the list.

dict = {
    'a': 1, 'b': 3, 'c': 3, 'd': 2, 'e': 1, 'f': 4, 'g': 2, 'h': 4, 'i': 1,
    'j': 8, 'k': 5, 'l': 1, 'm': 3, 'n': 1, 'o': 1, 'p': 3, 'q': 10,
    'r': 1, 's': 1, 't': 1, 'u': 1, 'v': 4, 'w': 4, 'x': 8, 'y': 4, 'z': 10
}

word = 'banana'
sum = 0
for letter in word:
    sum+=dict[letter]
print sum