A Python list is an ordered and changeable collection of data objects. Unlike an array, which can contain objects of a single type, a list can contain a mixture of objects.
As evident in the illustration above, a list can contain objects of any data type, including another list. This makes the list data structure one of the most powerful and flexible tools in Pythonic programming.
Defining a list in Python is really quite simple. The name of the list has to be specified, followed by the values it contains:
# Initiliazing a list with 5 objects myList1 = [20, 'Edpresso', [1, 2, 3], 3.142, None] print(myList1) # Initializing an empty list myList2 = [] print(myList2)
A list element can be accessed using its index. The index is the position of an element in the list.
Similar to other languages, Python list elements are indexed from 0
. This means that the first element will be at the 0
index.
To access an element, its index is enclosed in the []
brackets:
myIntList = [1,3,5,2,4] print(myIntList[3]) # Accessing the 4th element
The size of a list is not fixed. Elements can be added and removed at any point.
myList = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f'] # Add an element at the end myList.append('g') print(myList) # Insert element at a specific index # insert(index, value) myList.insert(3, 'z') # Insertion at the 3rd index print(myList) # Delete an element from the end myList.pop() print(myList) # Delete the value at a specific index del myList[1] print(myList) # Accessing the length of a list print(len(myList))
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