Session-5 List in Python

By – Amresh Tiwari (SGEI)
Data type identifies the type of data

values a variable can hold and the
operations that can be performed on
that data.
Variables can hold values of different
data types.
Python Data
Python is a dynamically typed language
Types hence we need not define the type of
the variable while declaring it.
The interpreter implicitly binds the value

with its type.
By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

Sequence
• A Python sequence is an ordered collection of items, where
each item is indexed by an integer.
• The three types of sequence data types available in Python are
Strings, Lists and Tuples.
• Note:

The string can be defined as the
sequence of characters represented
in the quotation marks.
String
In python, we can use single,
double, or triple quotes to define a
string.
str1 = ”Good Morning” #string str1

Eg.
str2 = ' how are you’ #string str2

List is a sequence of items
separated by commas and the
items are enclosed in square
brackets [ ].
List Example #To create a list

>>> list1 = [5, 3.4, "New Delhi", "20C", 45]
#print the elements of the list list1
>>> print(list1)
[5, 3.4, 'New Delhi', '20C', 45]

Tuple is a sequence of items
separated by commas and items are
enclosed in parenthesis ( ).
This is unlike list, where values are
Tuple enclosed in brackets [ ]. Once

created, we cannot change the
tuple.
#create a tuple tuple1

>>> tuple1 = (10, 20, "Apple", 3.4, 'a')
Eg. #print the elements of the tuple tuple1
>>> print(tuple1)
(10, 20, "Apple", 3.4, 'a')

Mutable and Immutable Data Types
• Variables whose values can be changed after they are created
and assigned are called mutable.
• Variables whose values cannot be changed after they are
created and assigned are called immutable.
• When an attempt is made to update the value of an immutable
variable, the old variable is destroyed and a new variable is
created by the same name in memory.

Mutable and Immutable Data Types

In the Python programming language, there are
four collection data types :
List is a collection which is ordered and

changeable. Allows duplicate members.
Python Collections Tuple is a collection which is ordered and
unchangeable. Allows duplicate members.
(Arrays)
Set is a collection which is unordered and
unindexed. No duplicate members.
Dictionary is a collection which is unordered,

changeable and indexed. No duplicate members.

The list is a most versatile datatype available
in Python which can be written as a list of
comma-separated values (items) inside a
square brackets.
Python lists are ordered and mutable type

Python Lists (changeable), its mean we can modify its
element after it created.
Important point about a list is that items in a

list need not be of the same type (integer,
float, string, etc.).

Creating a list is as simple as putting
different comma-separated values
between square brackets.
Creating a Syntax: list_name = [item1, item2, item3, ….]
list
Eg. List1 = [1,2,3,4,5]
list2 = [‘a’, ’b’, ‘c’, ‘d’, ‘e’]
list3 = [1, “Name”, 1.5]

• We can create empty list object by giving no
elements in square brackets in assignment
statement.
• Syntax: list_name = [ ]
Empty List • Eg. My_list=[ ]

Nested List
• A list having another list as an item is called
nested list.
• Syntax:
list_name = [L1_Value, L1_Value,
[L2_Value, L2_Value, ….]]
Eg. A=[[11, 12, 13], [21, 22, 23], [31, 32, 33]]

The printing of the list is same as
of the printing of variables . the
print() function is used to print
the lists.
Printing Lists
Syntax : print(list_name)

Accessing elements or items from the lists
There are various ways in which we can access the elements of a list.
Accessing individual items from the list.
Negative indexing
Range of index

Accessing individual items from the list
• We can use the index operator [] to access an

item in a list.
• In Python, indices starts from 0. So, a list having
4 elements will have an index from 0 to 3.
• Eg. print(z[0]) will print 3.
print(z[1]) will print 7.
Note:- The index must be an integer.

Negative indexing
• Python allows negative indexing for its

sequences.
• The negative indexing means the
beginning from end ( right to left).
• Eg. print(z[-1]) will print 2.
print(z[-4]) will print 3.

TRAVERSING A LIST
We can access each element of

the list or traverse a list using a
for loop or a while loop.

TRAVERSING A LIST (Using for Loop)
• List Traversal Using for • Another way of accessing the

Loop: elements of the list is using
range() and len() functions:
>>> z= [3,7,4,2]
>>> for item in z: >>> z= [3,7,4,2]
print(item) >>> for item in range(len(z)):
print(z[item])
Output: Output:
3 3
7 7
4 4
2 2 By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)
TRAVERSING A LIST (Using while Loop)
>>> i = 0
>>> while i < len(z):
print(z[i])
i += 1
Output:
3
7
4
2 By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)
Range of indexes (Slicing)
• We can specify a range of
indexes by specifying from
where to start and where to end
the range.
• We can access a range of items
in a list by using the slicing
operator : (colon).
• Slicing is used to extract a part of
the list.
Range of indexes (Slicing)…
• >>> list1 =['Red','Green','Blue','Cyan','Magenta','Yellow','Black']
• >>> list1[2:6]
['Blue', 'Cyan', 'Magenta', 'Yellow']
• #list1 is truncated to the end of the list

>>> list1[2:20] #second index is out of range
['Blue', 'Cyan', 'Magenta', 'Yellow', 'Black']
• >>> list1[7:2] #first index > second index

[] #results in an empty list
• #slicing with a given step size

>>> list1[0:6:2]
['Red','Blue','Magenta']
• #negative indexes #elements at index -6,-5,-4,-3 are sliced

>>> list1[-6:-2]
['Green','Blue','Cyan','Magenta']
• #both first and last index missing

>>> list1[::2] #step size 2 on entire list
['Red','Blue','Magenta','Black']
• #negative step size #whole list in the reverse order

>>> list1[::-1]
['Black','Yellow','Magenta','Cyan','Blue', 'Green','Red']
LIST METHODS AND BUILT-IN FUNCTIONS
• The data type list has several built-in methods that are useful
in programming.
• Some of them are –
len(), list(), append(), extend(), insert(), count(), index(),
remove(), pop(), reverse(), sort(), sorted(), min(), max(),
sum()

Changing the Item value
Adding items in the list

List
Operations Deleting Items from the list
Finding the length of the list

Lists are mutable, meaning their elements can be changed .
We can use the assignment operator (=) to change an item
or a range of items.
Changing
the Item
value

Adding items in the list
We can add item(s) in a list by using any of the following method or function-
append() – This method add one item to the end of the list.
extend() - This method adds all the elements of a list to the end of the current list.
insert() – This method inserts an item at the defined index.

For eg.

• We can also use + (plus) operator to combine
two lists. This is called the concatenation of two
lists.
• The * operator repeats a list for the given
number of times.
Concatenate
&
Replicate
Operator

Deleting Items from the list
We can delete item(s) in a list by using any of the following method or function-
remove() – This method removes an item from the list.
pop() – This method removes and returns an element at the given index. And removes
the last item if index is not provided.
clear() – This method removes all items from the list. i.e. empty a list.

For eg.

We can delete one or more
items from a list using the
keyword del.
del keyword
in Python
It can even delete the list
entirely.

For eg.

Finding the length of the list
To determine the
number of items in
a list, we use the
len() method.

For eg.

list()
• Creates an empty list if no argument is passed.
• Eg.- >>> list1 = list()
>>> list1
[]
• Creates a list if a sequence is passed as an argument
Eg.- >>> str1 = 'aeiou'
>>> list1 = list(str1)
>>> list1
['a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u']
count()
• Returns the number of times a given element
appears in the list.
• Eg.-
>>> list1 = [10,20,30,10,40,10]
>>> list1.count(10)
3
>>> list1.count(90)
0
index()
• Returns index of the first occurrence of the
element in the list. If the element is not present,
ValueError is generated
• Eg.-
>>> list1 = [10,20,30,10,40,10]
>>> list1.index(20)
1
>>> list1.index(90)
ValueError: 90 is not in list
reverse()
• Reverses the order of elements in the given list
Eg.-
>>> list1 = [10,20,30,40,50]
>>> list1.reverse()
>>> list1
[50,40,30,20,10]
sort()
• Sorts the elements of the given list in-place
• Eg.-
>>>list1=['Tiger','Zebra','Lion','Cat','Elephant' ,'Dog']
>>> list1.sort()
>>>list1
['Cat', 'Dog', 'Elephant', 'Lion', 'Tiger', 'Zebra']
• Eg.-
>>> list1 = [34,66,12,89,28,99]
>>> list1.sort(reverse = True)
>>> list1
[99,89,66,34,28,12]
sorted()
• It takes a list as parameter and creates a new list consisting
of the same elements arranged in sorted order
• Eg.-
>>> list1 = [23,45,11,67,85,56]
>>> list2 = sorted(list1)
>>> list1
[23, 45, 11, 67, 85, 56]
>>> list2
[11, 23, 45, 56, 67, 85]

min(), max(), sum()
Eg.-
• min() - Returns minimum or
>>>list1= [34,12,63,39,92,44]
smallest element of the list >>> min(list1)
• max() - Returns maximum or 12
largest element of the list. >>> max(list1)
92
• sum() - Returns sum of the >>> sum(list1)
elements of the list 284

COPYING LISTS
• The simplest way to make a copy of the list is to assign
it to another list.
• Eg.- The statement list2 = list1 does not
>>> list1 = [1,2,3] create a new list. Rather, it just
>>> list2 = list1 makes list1 and list2 refer to the
same list object.
>>> list1
Here list2 actually becomes an
[1, 2, 3]
alias of list1. Therefore, any
>>> list2 changes made to either of them
[1, 2, 3] will be reflected in the other list.
COPYING LISTS…
• We can also create a copy or clone of the list as
a distinct object by three methods.
• The first method uses slicing, the second
method uses built-in function list() and the third
method uses copy() function of python library
copy.

COPYING LISTS…
• Method-1 We can slice our original list and store it
into a new variable as follows:
newList = oldList[:]
Example
>>> list1 = [1,2,3,4,5]
>>> list2 = list1[:]
>>> list2
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
COPYING LISTS…
• Method-2 We can use the built-in function list() as
follows:
newList = list(oldList)
Example
>>> list1 = [10,20,30,40]
>>> list2 = list(list1)
>>> list2
[10, 20, 30, 40]
COPYING LISTS…
• Method-3 We can use the copy () function as follows:
import copy #import the library copy
#use copy()function of library copy
newList = copy.copy(oldList)
• Example
>>> import copy
>>> list1 = [1,2,3,4,5]
>>> list2 = copy.copy(list1)
>>> list2
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

PROGRAMMING PROBLEMS
• Write a program to find the number of times an element
occurs in the list.
• Write a program to read a list of n integers and find their
median.
Note: The median value of a list of values is the middle one when they are arranged in
order. If there are two middle values then take their average.
Hint: You can use an built-in function to sort the list.
• Write a program to read a list of elements. Input an
element from the user that has to be inserted in the list.
Also input the position at which it is to be inserted. Write
a user defined function to insert the element at the
desired position in the list.

What will be the output of the following code segment:
a. myList = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
del myList[3:]
print(myList)
b. myList = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
del myList[:5]
print(myList)
c. list1 = [1,2,3,4,5]
print(list1[len(list1)-1])

Session-5 List in Python

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By – Amresh Tiwari (SGEI)

Data type identifies the type of data

The interpreter implicitly binds the value

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

str1 = ”Good Morning” #string str1

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

List Example #To create a list

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

This is unlike list, where values are

Tuple enclosed in brackets [ ]. Once

#create a tuple tuple1

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

List is a collection which is ordered and

Dictionary is a collection which is unordered,

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

Python lists are ordered and mutable type

Important point about a list is that items in a

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

Creating a Syntax: list_name = [item1, item2, item3, ….]

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

Empty List • Eg. My_list=[ ]

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

Accessing individual items from the list.

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

• We can use the index operator [] to access an

Note:- The index must be an integer.

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

• Python allows negative indexing for its

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

We can access each element of

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

• List Traversal Using for • Another way of accessing the

• #list1 is truncated to the end of the list

• >>> list1[7:2] #first index > second index

• >>> list1 =['Red','Green','Blue','Cyan','Magenta','Yellow','Black']

• #slicing with a given step size

• #negative indexes #elements at index -6,-5,-4,-3 are sliced

• >>> list1 =['Red','Green','Blue','Cyan','Magenta','Yellow','Black']

• #both first and last index missing

• #negative step size #whole list in the reverse order

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

Adding items in the list

Finding the length of the list

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

insert() – This method inserts an item at the defined index.

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

remove() – This method removes an item from the list.

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)

By-Amresh Tiwari, Sunbeam Suncity (School & Hostel)