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i need to implement a class called athlete which takes an __init__(self,names,fastest_time) and another method called fastest_time which will display the name and time of the fastest athlete:

So far I have this:

class Athlete:
    def __init__(self,names,ftime):
        self.name=names
        self.fastest=ftime
    def fastest_athlete(self):


names=(['sara','jam','mary'])
times=([90,50,75])
a=Athlete(name,ftime)
a.fastest_athlete()

PROBLEM: dont know if there is need to loop through the array name 'times'? dont know how to implement the method fastest_time..HELP PLEASE

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  • Yes, your inclination is correct. You should loop over names and times creating an object for each athlete. Hint: zip() will help you loop over both at the same time. Commented Mar 16, 2013 at 20:16
  • your oo design is wrong. an athlete is supposed to represent one athlete and you should not pass list of names and times to it. Commented Mar 16, 2013 at 20:18
  • thanks!what is zip()??never heard of it before..is there anything simpler or is zip the only way? Commented Mar 16, 2013 at 20:18
  • the question asked to input the names of 10 athletes and their times Commented Mar 16, 2013 at 20:19
  • Do you want to have it so that the function is within the class? Shouldn't it be outside so you can access all the classes at once? Commented Mar 16, 2013 at 20:22

5 Answers 5

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you should loop over the array to create Athletes.

>>>Athletes = [Athlete(name, time) for name, time in zip(names, times)]    
>>>Athletes[0].name
sara
>>>Athletes[1].name
jam

well, to find the fastest athlete, you can use max and min function.

>>>min(Athletes, key = lambda a : a.fastest)

but you should take note that min() is done on the array that contains Athletes, not on the Athlete itself. if you want to find the fastest Athlete, you may need something like AthleteContainer class.

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2 Comments

class Athlete: def __init__(self,names,ftime): self.name=names self.fastest=ftime def fastest_athlete(self): names=(['sara','jam','mary']) times=([90,50,75]) a=Athlete(names,times) a.fastest_athlete()
i dont know if the method fastest_time should take the name and time..im confused what to do
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Since the fastest athlete is something that does not depend on a concrete instance, it is more appropiate as a static method:

class Athlete:
    # ...
    @staticmethod
    def fastest_athlete(athletes):
        return reduce(lambda x, y: x if x.fastest < y.fastest else y, athletes)

# ...
athletes = [Athlete(name, time) for name, time in zip(names, times)] 
fastest = Athlete.fastest_athlete(athletes)
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If you want fastest_athlete to be part of the Athlete class, then your Athlete class should be able to reach all athletes.

fastest_athlete would return a list, because there may be more athletes running the best time.

athletes=[] # stores all athletes 

class Athlete:
    def __init__(self,names,ftime):
        self.name=names
        self.fastest=ftime
        athletes.append(self)
    def fastest_athlete(self):
        besttime= min([athlete.fastest for athlete in athletes])
        return [athlete.name for athlete in athletes if athlete.fastest==besttime]



names=(['sara','jam','mary'])
times=([90,50,75])

for a, t in zip(names, times):
    last_athlete=Athlete(a, t)

print last_athlete.fastest_athlete()
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2 Comments

heyy thanks!it works but i dont understand this bit besttime= min([athlete.fastest for athlete in athletes]) could you please explain it to me in more details?thanks
athletes is a list containing each athlete.<br/> the [] part returns a list containing each time of each athlete. the min([]) returns the smallest(best) time of all. the "return" filters the same athlete list for all athletes having fastest time equal to besttime, then returns their names as list.
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You could override the __gt__ method and use python's max function. Also each class should represent a single athlete and not the list of athletes.

>>> class Athlete:
    name = None
    time = None

    def __init__(self, name, time):
        self.name = name
        self.time = time

    def __gt__(self, other):
        return self.time > other.time

>>> names = ['sara', 'jam', 'mary']
>>> times = [90 ,50 , 75]
>>>
>>> athletes = [Athlete(name, time) for name, time in zip(names, times)]
>>>
>>> fastest = max(athletes)
>>> fastest.name
'sara'
>>> fastest.time
90
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0

If you just want to loop over the array self.name then:

for name in self.names:
    # Do something

But for the actual problem:

def fastest_athlete(self):
    combined = zip(self.names, self.fastest)

    #Note that this will return the athlete with the first fastest time if there are dupes
    index = self.fastest.index(min(self.fastest))

    #If you want multiples:
    indices = [i for i,n in enumerate(self.fastest) if n == min(self.fastest)]

    #Either return the list (combined[0] is the athlete's name, combined[1] is the associated time) or print it here.
    return combined[index]

However, I agree with another commenter - athletes should be separate objects, not a collection.

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