Access List Items

Access Items

List items are indexed and you can access them by referring to the index number:

Example

thislist = ["apple", "banana", "cherry"]
print(thislist[1])

Note: The first item has index 0.

Negative Indexing

Negative indexing means start from the end

-1 refers to the last item, -2 refers to the second last item etc.

Example

thislist = ["apple", "banana", "cherry"]
print(thislist[-1])

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

thislist = ["apple", "banana", "cherry", "orange",
  "kiwi", "melon", "mango"]
print(thislist[2:5])

Note: The search will start at index 2 (included) and end at index 5 (not included).

Note: Remember that the first item has index 0.

By leaving out the start value, the range will start at the first item:

Example

thislist = ["apple", "banana", "cherry", "orange",
  "kiwi", "melon", "mango"]
print(thislist[:4])

By leaving out the end value, the range will go on to the end of the list:

Example

thislist = ["apple", "banana", "cherry", "orange",
  "kiwi", "melon", "mango"]
print(thislist[2:])

Range of Negative Indexes

Specify negative indexes if you want to start the search from the end of the list:

Example

thislist = ["apple", "banana", "cherry", "orange",
  "kiwi", "melon", "mango"]
print(thislist[-4:-1])

Check if Item Exists

To determine if a specified item is present in a list use the in keyword:

Example

thislist = ["apple", "banana", "cherry"]
if "apple" in thislist:
  print("Yes, 'apple' is in the fruits list")