Python Access List Items
Access Items
You access the list items by referring to the index number:
Example
Print the second item of the list:
thislist = ["apple", "banana", "cherry"]
print(thislist[1])
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Negative Indexing
Negative indexing means beginning from the end, -1 refers to the last item,
-2 refers to the second last item etc.
Example
Print the last item of the list:
thislist = ["apple", "banana", "cherry"]
print(thislist[-1])
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Range of Indexes
You can specify a range of indexes by specifying where to start and where to end the range.
When specifying a range, the return value will be a new list with the specified items.
Example
Return the third, fourth, and fifth item:
thislist = ["apple", "banana", "cherry", "orange",
"kiwi", "melon", "mango"]
print(thislist[2:5])
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Note: The search will start at index 2 (included) and end at index 5 (not included).
Remember that the first item has index 0.
By leaving out the start value, the range will start at the first item:
Example
This example returns the items from the beginning to "orange":
thislist = ["apple", "banana", "cherry", "orange",
"kiwi", "melon", "mango"]
print(thislist[:4])
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By leaving out the end value, the range will go on to the end of the list:
Example
This example returns the items from "cherry" and to the end:
thislist = ["apple", "banana", "cherry", "orange",
"kiwi", "melon", "mango"]
print(thislist[2:])
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Range of Negative Indexes
Specify negative indexes if you want to start the search from the end of the list:
Example
This example returns the items from index -4 (included) to index -1 (excluded)
thislist = ["apple", "banana", "cherry", "orange",
"kiwi", "melon", "mango"]
print(thislist[-4:-1])
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