Lists

Lists are Python’s workhorse datatype. When I say “list,” you might be thinking “array whose size I have to declare in advance, that can only contain items of the same type, &c.” Don’t think that. Lists are much cooler than that.

A list in Python is like an array in Perl 5. In Perl 5, variables that store arrays always start with the @ character; in Python, variables can be named anything, and Python keeps track of the datatype internally.

A list in Python is much more than an array in Java (although it can be used as one if that’s really all you want out of life). A better analogy would be to the ArrayList class, which can hold arbitrary objects and can expand dynamically as new items are added.

Creating a list

Creating a list is easy: use square brackets to wrap a comma-separated list of values.