title: Python: using list comprehension to count first element in list of numbers
body: <p>I'm trying to teach myself list comprehension in Python, but I find it quite tricky compared to regular loops and it is hard to find good beginner examples of list comprehension.</p>
  
  <p>Using this basic example below, it supplies a list of numbers and asks for sentences generated such as "2 numbers start with 1."</p>
  
  <pre><code>my_list = [232, 379, 985, 384, 129, 197]
  2 numbers start with 1
  1 number starts with 2
  2 numbers start with 3
  1 number starts with 9
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>If I was going to do this in a loop, I might bring back the first digit in each like this and then count them and put them in print statements (this just shows how I might start out in a loop):</p>
  
  <pre><code>for x in range(len(my_list)):
      strList = (str(my_list[x]))
      if strList[0]:
          print(strList[0])
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'm so confused about how to bring back element [0] in list comprehension. 
  I know there is a sum available in list comprehension, so I'm trying to start like this below to create a count (this isn't right though) and I don't know how to retrieve the first elements back out of this so I can piece together sentences like "2 numbers start with 1":</p>
  
  <pre><code>count = [sum(x) for x in my_list if my_list[0]]
  
  print(count,' numbers start with', start_digit)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Thanks for any help with understanding list comprehension. It looks much better than loops in terms of being more concise so I want to learn it.</p>