python - How to create a range of numbers with a given increment

Question

I want to know whether there is an equivalent statement in lists to do the following. In MATLAB I would do the following

fid = fopen('inc.txt','w')
init =1;inc = 5; final=51;
a = init:inc:final
l = length(a)
for i = 1:l
   fprintf(fid,'%d
',a(i));
end
fclose(fid);

In short I have an initial value, a final value and an increment. I need to create an array (I read it is equivalent to lists in python) and print to a file.

Answer 1

In Python, range(start, stop + 1, step) can be used like Matlab's start:step:stop command. Unlike Matlab's functionality, however, range only works when start, step, and stop are all integers. If you want a parallel function that works with floating-point values, try the arange command from numpy:

import numpy as np

with open('numbers.txt', 'w') as handle:
    for n in np.arange(1, 5, 0.1):
        handle.write('{}
'.format(n))

Keep in mind that, unlike Matlab, range and np.arange both expect their arguments in the order start, stop, then step. Also keep in mind that, unlike the Matlab syntax, range and np.arange both stop as soon as the current value is greater than or equal to the stop value.

http://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/reference/generated/numpy.arange.html