[Tutor] Counting matching elements in sequences

[Gregor Lingl]

>>def alleq(seq):
>>    for item in seq[1:]:
>>        if item != seq[0]:
>>            return False
>>    return True
>>    
>>
>
>I came up with nearly the same one.
>
>def alleq(seq):
>    k = seq[0]
>    for i in seq:
>        if i != k:
>            return 0
>    return 1
>  
>
Actually, if you wanted to avoid copying seq and at
the same time make the function work for empty
sequences you had to write something like:

def alleq(seq):
    if len(seq) > 0:
        k = seq[0]
        for i in seq:
            if i!=k:
                return 0
    return 1

or, how would you avoid
"using len on the original sequence"?

Gregor