Welcome to the Treehouse Community
Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.
Looking to learn something new?
Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.
Start your free trial![](https://ecs-static.teamtreehouse.com/assets/views/marketing/shared/community-banner-white-47072046c51352fe6a69f5e691ff5700b28bb11d45197d7bdf066d9ea3f72d0c.webp)
![Patrick Schmidt](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/7ef54a33ab979d48dbe8dbc4a6e27f48?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fecs-static.teamtreehouse.com%2Fassets%2Fcontent%2Fdefault_avatar-445fbbabfc8dc9188fb5967fe43322ee0c3e0dd1e10f378bf8343784af5a13eb.webp&r=pg)
Patrick Schmidt
1,531 PointsWhy can we call "continent" from the list "continents"?
During the challenge task I noticed that we can access single items from a list in a for loop, like
for continent in continents:
If your list contains an s at the end, does Python automatically assign all of the entries to that list as the same word without the s at the end? So in a list called Fruits, would every entry be accessible as Fruit when I'm doing a for loop?
1 Answer
![Chris Freeman](https://uploads.teamtreehouse.com/production/profile-photos/1153532/micro_image.jpg)
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,425 PointsHey Patrick Schmidt, the names are chosen for readability.
Given,
for item in group:
the group
is an iterable container and item
is a single item from that group. Choosing a “one of many” variable naming strategy helps readability. So there’s
- for item in group:
- for continent in continents:
- for fruit in fruits:
Could also be
- for thing in group:
- for landmass in continents:
- for munchable in fruits:
The key idea is the for loop variable name is to imply “singular” and the iterable group variable name is plural to imply many items. Both variables names may be chosen independently.
Post back if you need more help. Good luck!!!