Python List Index

Indexing helps us to get or replace particular element from the list.


List index also starts from 0.Indexing will return an item.

The list of N element will have the index from 0 to N-1. (Left to Right)

Example

list_name[index]

list_name[0] will return the first item from the list.

list_name[1] will return the second item from the list.

Example

#Python list index

numbers = [1,2,3,4,5]

print("1st Number ", numbers[0])
print("2nd Number ", numbers[1])
print("3rd Number ", numbers[2])
print("4th Number ", numbers[3])
print("5th Number ", numbers[4])

If the index value exceeds N - 1 (last element's index), it will throw the following error.

IndexError: list index out of range


Example

#Python list index out of range

numbers = [1,2,3,4,5]
#Above list has 5 elements
#index 0 to 4

#Below statements will throw error
print(numbers[5])
print(numbers[100])



Indexing in reverse order

We can also access the items from the last.


Like,

list_name[-1] will return the last element from the list.

list_name[-2] will return the second last element from the list.

Pictorial Explanation

Python List Index

Example

#Python list - reverse indexing

numbers = [1,2,3,4,5]

print("Last element ", numbers[-1])
print("2nd element from the last ", numbers[-2])
print("3rd element from the last ", numbers[-3])
print("4th element from the last ", numbers[-4])
print("5th element from the last ", numbers[-5])

list[0] and list[-0] refers the first element of a list.



Replacing the list elements

As the lists are mutable, we can change its values using index.


Example

#changing list elements

numbers = [1, 2, 10, 4, 5]
print("List elements are ", numbers)

#changing 3rd element as 3. Index 2
numbers[2] = 3
print("New list elements are ", numbers)