Python Coding challenge - Day 461| What is the output of the following Python Code?

 Code Explanation:

1. Initializing the string s

s = "abcdef"

Purpose:

This line initializes the string s with the value "abcdef". This string contains six characters: 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', and 'f'.

2. Initializing the variable total

total = 0

Purpose:

This line initializes the variable total to 0. The total variable will be used to accumulate the sum of the ASCII values of specific characters from the string s (those with even indices).

3. The for loop with range()

for i in range(0, len(s), 2):

Purpose:

This line initiates a for loop that iterates through the indices of the string s.

range(0, len(s), 2) generates a sequence of numbers starting from 0, going up to len(s) (which is 6), with a step of 2. This means it will only include the indices 0, 2, and 4, which corresponds to the characters 'a', 'c', and 'e' in the string.

In summary, the loop will run 3 times, with i taking the values 0, 2, and 4.

4. Adding the ASCII values to total

total += ord(s[i])

Purpose:

Inside the loop, for each value of i, this line:

s[i] retrieves the character at the index i of the string s.

ord(s[i]) gets the ASCII (Unicode) value of that character.

The result of ord(s[i]) is then added to the total variable.

So, this line accumulates the sum of the ASCII values of the characters at indices 0, 2, and 4.

For i = 0, s[0] = 'a', ord('a') = 97, so total becomes 97.

For i = 2, s[2] = 'c', ord('c') = 99, so total becomes 97 + 99 = 196.

For i = 4, s[4] = 'e', ord('e') = 101, so total becomes 196 + 101 = 297.

5. Printing the final total

print(total)

Purpose:

After the loop completes, this line prints the final value of total, which contains the sum of the ASCII values of the characters 'a', 'c', and 'e'.

The final value of total is 297, as explained in the previous step.

Final Explanation:

The program sums up the ASCII values of every second character in the string "abcdef". It processes the characters at indices 0, 2, and 4 (i.e., 'a', 'c', 'e'), and adds their ASCII values:

ord('a') = 97

ord('c') = 99

ord('e') = 101

Thus, the total sum is 97 + 99 + 101 = 297, which is then printed.

Output:

297