Python List

A List is the collection of elements. The list is the most frequently used data types in python.

How to create a list?

A list is created by placing elements inside square brackets [] these elements are separated by commas.  A  List can contain similar or different data types.

For example

# A list of integers

_list = [1, 2, 3]

print(_list)

# list with heterogeneous data types

_list = [0, "Hi", 3.14159]

print(_list)

# empty list

_list = []

print(_list)

Output

A list can contain another list as an element, It is called a nested list.

# Nested List

_list = [0, [1,2,3], 3.14159]

How to create a list using a sequence?

The list()  function is used to create the list from the sequence for example

# creating a list using the tuple

_list = list( ( 1,2,3,4))

print(_list)

# Creating a list using the string

_list = list( 'Python')

print(_list)

# creating list using another list

_list = list( [ 1,2,3,4])

print(_list)

Output

 

How to access element(s) from a list?

There are two ways to access the element(s)  from the list

1. Using Index operator
   1. Index
   2. Negative Index
2. Using Slicing

List Index

The index operator []  is used to access an element from a list.

The index or indices start from 0, the first element of the list is _list[0]

A list with 6 elements will have  indexes from 0 to 5 for example

 

Index	0	1	2	3	4	5
Element	'P'	'y'	't'	'h'	'o'	'n'

 

Note:

The valid index range for  a list is  0 to len(list) - 1,  0 to length of the list - 1

 Accessing indexes other than these ( 0 to length of list -1) will raise an IndexError.

The index must be an integer. Using other than an integer as an index will result into TypeError

Nested lists are accessed using nested indexing.

_list = ['P', 'y', 't', 'h', 'o', 'n']

print(_list[0])

print(_list[5])

print(_list[6])

​​​​​​​print(_list['a'])

​​​​​​​Output

 

Negative indexing

Python allows negative indexing to access elements from sequences. The index  -1 refers to the last element of the list.

 

Index	0	1	2	3	4	5
Element	'P'	'y'	't'	'h'	'o'	'n'
Negative Index	-6	-5	-4	-3	-2	-1

 

Example using Negative Index

_list = ['P', 'y', 't', 'h', 'o', 'n']

print(_list[-1])

print(_list[-6])

Output

Slicing

Slicing is used to select  a range of elements from  the list using colon ( : ) operator for example

Example: 1

_list[2:5]

                      

Index	0	1	2	3	4	5
Element	'P'	'y'	't'	'h'	'o'	'n'
Negative Index	-6	-5	-4	-3	-2	-1

Output

Example: 2

_list[1:]  # slicing list from index 1 to end of the list

                   ​​​​​​​

Index	0	1	2	3	4	5
Element	'P'	'y'	't'	'h'	'o'	'n'
Negative Index	-6	-5	-4	-3	-2	-1

Output

Example: 3

_list[-1: -5]  # slicing list from index 1 to end of the list

 

Index	0	1	2	3	4	5
Element	'P'	'y'	't'	'h'	'o'	'n'
Negative Index	-6	-5	-4	-3	-2	-1

                                            ​​​​​​​                 

Output

 

Example: 4

_list[4:]  # slicing list from index 4 to the end of the list

                                                                       ​​​​​​​

Index	0	1	2	3	4	5
Element	'P'	'y'	't'	'h'	'o'	'n'
Negative Index	-6	-5	-4	-3	-2	-1

 

Output

Example: 5

_list[:-4]  # slicing list from index -6 to -5

 

Index	0	1	2	3	4	5
Element	'P'	'y'	't'	'h'	'o'	'n'
Negative Index	-6	-5	-4	-3	-2	-1

                         

Output

Example: 6

_list[:]  # all the elements from the list

             ​​​​​​​

Index	0	1	2	3	4	5
Element	'P'	'y'	't'	'h'	'o'	'n'
Negative Index	-6	-5	-4	-3	-2	-1

Output

Example: 7 using step parameter  with slicing

Output

 

_list = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]

print(_list[0:7:2])​​​​​​​

Index	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Element	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Negative Index	-8	-7	-6	-5	-4	-3	-2	-1

Output

Example 8

_list = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]

print(_list[1::2])

 

Index	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Element	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Negative Index	-8	-7	-6	-5	-4	-3	-2	-1

Output

 

Example 9

_list = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]

​​​​​​​print(_list[::3])

 

Index	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Element	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Negative Index	-8	-7	-6	-5	-4	-3	-2	-1

 

Output

 

​​​​​​​

How to modify the element(s) from a list?

There are two ways to modify the element(s)  from the list

1. Using Index operator
2. Using Slicing

Example: 1 Using  index operator

_list = ['p', 'y', 't', 'h', 'o', 'n']

_list[0]= 'P'

print(_list)

Output

 

Example: 2 Using  index operator

_list = ['p', 'y', 't', 'h', 'o', 'n']

_list[-1 ]= 'P'

print(_list)

Output

​​​​​​​Slicing can be used to modify elements from the list two indices that will slice that portion of the list.

Example:1

_list = [1,2,5,7]

# Modify index 2 and 3 with values 3 and 4

_list[2:4] = [3,4]

print(_list)

Output

How to add element(s) to a list?

There are multiple ways to add element(s)  to the list, enlist below

Using slicing

Using the insert() function

Using extend function

Using concatenation +

Using append() function

Example:1  Add elements using slicing operator

_list = [1,2,4,7,9]

_list[1:3]= [3,5]

print(_list)

​​​​​​​Output

Example: 2  Add elements using insert() function

_list = [1,7,9]

_list.insert(1,3)

_list.insert(2,5)

print(_list)

Output

Example: 3  Add elements or list  using extend() function

# The extend() function add another list to a list

_list = [2,4,6]

_list.extend([8,10])

print(_list)

Output

 

Example: 4  Concatenation lists

# The + Operator to concatenate two lists

_list = [2,4,6]

_list + [8,10]

print(_list)

Output

Example: 5  Add element using  append() function

# The append() function adds an element at the end of the list

_list = [2,4,6]

_list.append(8)

_list.append(10)

print(_list)

Output

How to delete or remove elements from a list?

We can delete one or more element(s) using the following ways

Using del  and index

Using  slicing

Using remove () function

Using pop() function

Using clear() function

Example: 1 Delete element using del and index

_list = ['P', 'y', 't', 'h', 'o', 'n']

del _list[0]

print(_list)

Output

Example: 2  Delete element(s) slicing

_list = ['P', 'y', 't', 'h', 'o', 'n']

_list[0:4] = []

print(_list)

Output

 Example: 3  Delete element using remove() function

​​​​​​​_list = ['P', 'y', 't', 'h', 'o', 'n']

#remove an element from a list

print(_list.remove('n'))

print(_list)

Output

Note:  removing an not existence element  a ‘ ValueError: list.remove(x): x not in list ‘ is raised.

Example: 4  Delete element using pop() function

_list = ['P', 'y', 't', 'h', 'o', 'n']

#remove an element from the end of the list

print(_list.pop'))

print(_list)

Output

Example: 5  Delete element using pop(index) function and an index

_list = ['P', 'y', 't', 'h', 'o', 'n']

#remove an element from a list at index 0

print(_list.pop(0))

print(_list)

Output

Example: 6  Delete all the elements from a list

_list = ['P', 'y', 't', 'h', 'o', 'n']

#remove all the elements from a list

_list.clear()

print(_list)

Output

Example: 7  Delete a list

_list = ['P', 'y', 't', 'h', 'o', 'n']

#delete the  list completely

del _list

print (_list)

Output

List Membership Test

The 'in ' and 'not in' keyword is used to find the existence of an element in the list.

_list = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]

print( 4 in  _list)

print( 10 in _list)

print( 4 not in _list)

print( 10 not in _list)

Output

Iterating through a List

You can iterate the list using 'for'  loop, since the list is an  iterable object

Example: 1  Iterating list with for loop

_list = ['P', 'y', 't', 'h', 'o', 'n']

for element in _list:

    print(element)

Output

 

Example: 2  Iterating a list with the while loop

counter=0

length = len(_list)

while(counter < length):

            print(_list(counter))

Output