Python: Multiply all the items in a list

Last update on December 21 2024 13:11:18 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

Multiply Items in List

Write a Python program to multiply all the items in a list.

Visual Presentation:

Sample Solution:

Python Code:

# Define a function called multiply_list that takes a list 'items' as input
def multiply_list(items):
    # Initialize a variable 'tot' to store the product of the numbers, starting with 1
    tot = 1
    # Iterate through each element 'x' in the input list 'items'
    for x in items:
        # Multiply the current element 'x' with the 'tot' variable
        tot *= x
    # Return the final product of the numbers
    return tot

# Call the multiply_list function with the list [1, 2, -8] as input and print the result
print(multiply_list([1, 2, -8]))

Sample Output:

-16

Explanation:

In the above exercise -

def multiply_list(items):  -> This line defines a function called “multiply_list” that takes a single argument items. This function will be used to calculate the product of all the numbers in the items list.

• tot = 1  -> This line initializes a variable called tot to 1. This will be used to keep track of the running total of the product of the numbers in the list.
• for x in items:  -> This line starts a loop that will iterate over each element in the items list, one at a time.
• tot *= x  -> This line multiplies the current value of x by the tot variable. This is equivalent to the shorter form tot = tot * x.
• return tot  -> This line returns the final value of the tot variable after the loop has finished. This is the product of all the numbers in the items list.

print(multiply_list([1,2,-8]))  -> This line calls the multiply_list() function and passes in the list [1,2,-8]. The resulting product is then printed to the console using the print function.

Flowchart:

Python Code Editor:

Previous: Write a Python program to sum all the items in a list.
Next: Write a Python program to get the largest number from a list.