Flash cards
Review the key moves
What is the main idea behind Python - Access List Items?
Lesson checks
Practice each idea before moving on
Short Mimo-style checks built from this lesson's code, terms, and sequence.
Which statement best captures the main point of this lesson?
Complete the missing token from the example code.
___ = ["apple", "banana", "cherry"]Put the learning moves in the order that makes the concept easiest to apply.
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).
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")