What does the [0]*x syntax do in Python?

The [0] * x creates a list with x elements. So,

>>> [ 0 ] * 5[0, 0, 0, 0, 0]>>> 

Be warned that they all point to the same object. This is cool for immutables like integers but a pain for things like lists.

>>> t = [[]] * 5>>> t[[], [], [], [], []]>>> t[0].append(5)>>> t[[5], [5], [5], [5], [5]]>>> 

The ** operator is used for exponentation.

>>> 5 ** 2 25

The x = [0] * n is demonstrated here:

>>> [0]*10[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]

It 'multiplies' the list elements

>>> [1, 2, 3] * 3[1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3]

The ** is the power operator

>>> 3**29

Although be careful, it can also be **kwargs (in a different context), see more about that here Proper way to use **kwargs in Python

1. X =[0] * N, produces a list of size N, with all N elements being the value zero. for example, X = [0] * 8, produces a list of size 8.

   X = [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]

   Pictorial representation will be like,

Technically, all eight cells of the list reference the same object. This is because of the fact that lists are referential structures in python.

and, if you try to assign a new value to list, say X[2] = 10, this does not technically change the value of the existing integer instance. This computes a new integer, with value 10, and sets cell 2 to reference the newly computed value.

Pictorial representation,

2. ** is power operator and computes the power of a number. for example, 5 ** 2 results in 25.