Is there a method to group the arguments together in Python

Question

This program I created asks the user for three values, and tells the user if he entered 1, 2 or 3 unique strings. But I feel it looks very repetitive:

def num_unique(v1, v2, v3):
    vlist = []
    if v1 not in vlist:
        vlist.append(v1)
    if v2 not in vlist:
        vlist.append(v2)
    if v3 not in vlist:
        vlist.append(v3)
    return len(vlist)

How can I group the arguments together and loop through them rather than listing them out 1 by 1?

Grateful for all the help, thanks!

Asked By: yijiyap

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Source

Answer 1

You can use set:

def num_unique(v1, v2, v3):
    return len(set((v1, v2, v3)))

print(num_unique(1,2,3)) # 3
print(num_unique(1,1,3)) # 2

You can reduce repetition (of typing v1, v2, v3) further by *args, which also adds flexibility:

def num_unique(*nums):
    return len(set(nums))

print(num_unique(1,2,3)) # 3
print(num_unique(1,1,3,3)) # 2

Answered By: j1-lee

Answer 2

Lets say

prompt = "Enter a string: "
unique_strings = set([input(prompt) for i in range(3)])
print(len(unique_strings))

Not in a form of a function, but fine:D

About the use of set

Answered By: luma

Is there a method to group the arguments together in Python

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