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Python To-Do List App Guide

Jun 20, 2025

Overview

This lecture explains how to create a simple console-based to-do list app using Python, covering task management operations through user input.

Setting Up the Project

  • Open VS Code and select or create a new folder for your project.
  • Create a Python file named to-do-list.py.

Core App Structure

  • Initialize an empty tasks array to store to-do items.
  • Use a while True loop to continually prompt the user for input until they choose to exit.

User Options & Implementation

  • Display four options: show tasks, add task, remove task, and exit.
  • For each iteration, take the user's menu choice and perform the corresponding action.

Show Tasks

  • If the user enters 1, print all tasks in the list.
  • Use enumerate to display tasks with their index numbers.
  • If there are no tasks, print "No task present".

Add Task

  • If the user enters 2, prompt for a new task using input.
  • If the input is not empty, append the new task to the tasks array.

Remove Task

  • If the user enters 3, display the tasks with indices.
  • Ask for the index of the task to remove.
  • Use pop to delete the selected task from the array.

Exit

  • If the user enters 4, break the while loop to exit the program.

Key Terms & Definitions

  • Array (List) — a Python data structure for storing multiple items (tasks).
  • Enumerate — a function that returns pairs of an index and the value from an iterable.
  • Append — a method to add an item to the end of a list.
  • Pop — a method that removes and returns an item at a specified index from a list.

Action Items / Next Steps

  • Practice building the app step-by-step in your own Python environment.
  • Test all four functionalities: show, add, remove, and exit.
  • Explore adding more features, such as task editing or marking tasks as complete.