This community-built FAQ covers the “Selecting List Elements I” exercise from the lesson “Working with Lists in Python”.
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This exercise can be found in the following Codecademy content:
Computer Science
Data Science
FAQs on the exercise Selecting List Elements I
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In the example given in this lesson we are given the following list:
calls = ['Ali', 'Bob', 'Cam', 'Doug', 'Ellie']
We are then told that when we use print(calls[2]) that 'Cam' is printed. However, when I ran this code in both the Codecademy editor and console, as well as my Python 3.9 app, simply Cam was printed instead.
Why is this?
Hello Malachi,
I am not completely sure about this, but my guess is that what they used in the explanation is not an actual code, but more of an example.
Please see that in their explanation the command print is preceded by >>>. When I try to execute such a command, I receive a Synthax Error. Try yourself and you will see!
Even if I am wrong and there is another reason for this, I think that if the Codeacademy editor and console, as well as your Python show Cam and not 'Cam', so this is how it should be and there is nothing to worry about 
Hope it helps you a little bit!
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Hi @malachigruenhagen834 and @array0078619254 !
You’re correct in that the single quotes around Cam don’t actually show up. They might have been put in there to demonstrate that a string is being printed out since Cam is a string.
As for the >>>, what you’re actually seeing is the Python shell being used. >>> is the prompt for the Python shell, which shows the user that the computer is ready to perform a command. It’s not meant to be used in a program that you write in a code editor. In this case, the command print(calls[2]) was entered and the output was printed, Cam. You can find the shell online here, but it’s also installed on your computer when you install Python.
