# Graphing a spiral

This program is made, so it graphs a spiral with N steps. What else could I add to this program?

Can this code be improved?

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

N = 100
arr = [(0, 0)]
x = []
y = []

for u in range(1, N):

for i in range(1, 5):
if i % 4 == 1:                      # first corner
arr.append((u, - u + 1))

elif i % 4 == 2:                    # second corner (same positive numbers)
arr.append((u, u))

elif i % 4 == 3:                    # third corner (same [one positive and one negative] numbers)
arr.append((-u, u))

elif i % 4 == 0:                    # fourth corner (same negative numbers)
arr.append((-u, -u))

print(arr)                                  # just to easily check all coordinates

for i in arr:
x.append(i[0])
y.append(i[1])

plt.plot(x, y)
plt.show()


Your inside for loop is useless as it loops over 4 values ([1,2,3,4]) and you have 4 if insinde it. you could have:

N = 100
arr = [(0, 0)]

for u in range(1, N):
# first corner
arr.append((u, - u + 1))
# second corner
arr.append((u, u))
# third corner
arr.append((-u, u))
# fourth corner
arr.append((-u, -u))

# Transforms [(x1, y1), (x2, y2)...] in x = (x1, x2...) y = (y1, y2...)
x, y = zip(*arr)
plt.plot(x, y)


Instead of redundant traversal and append to multiple lists - use an efficient generator function with further zip call to aggregate the needed x, y coords sequences:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

def spiral_coords_gen(n=100):
yield 0, 0
for i in range(1, n):
yield i, -i + 1
yield i, i
yield -i, i
yield -i, -i

x, y = zip(*spiral_coords_gen())
plt.plot(x, y)
plt.show()


The output:

Except for what @Cal wrote, you can get rid of the zipping as well:

N=100
x=[0]
y=[0]
for u in range(1, N):
x += [u, u, -u, -u]
y += [1-u, u, u, -u]

plt.plot(x, y)

• Approaching code golf, but if N is fixed it could be written as N=100 x=[0] y=[0, 0] for u in range(1, N): x += [u, u, -u, -u] where x would also be y. The issue is that there is one too many elements at the end of y. – alexyorke Mar 4 at 4:01
• @alexyorke my solution puts stress on readability. Your solution is not at first glance obvious why that is the case. And unless the plot function can ignore the extra y coordinate, it is meaningless. And even if it could, it Is not very smart to rely on such behaviour. – slepic Mar 4 at 6:51