Better Python for Loops Using enumerate

It's a common use case to iterate over a list together with its index. Traditionally, this has been done by using a for loop, utilizing range and len to create a list of indices. The items of the list then are accessed using [] notation, like so:

shopping_cart = ['apple', 'cereal', 'banana', 'cola']

for i in range(len(shopping_cart)):
    print(f'{i}: {shopping_cart[i]}')

# 0 apple
# 1 cereal
# 2 banana
# 3 cola

But this solution is very imperative, reminiscent of older programming languages. We have a better, more pythonic solution.

Using the enumerate keyword, we can get an iterator that already gives both the item and index of the list. Using this, we can simplify the above code as follows:

shopping_cart = ['apple', 'cereal', 'banana', 'cola']

for i, item in enumerate(shopping_cart):
    print(f'{i}: {item}')

# 0 apple
# 1 cereal
# 2 banana
# 3 cola

I personally think that this solution is cleaner, more elegant, and simpler to write.

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