10/19/24, 9:34 PM Python - Loop Lists

Python - Loop Lists

Loop Through List Items
Looping through list items in Python refers to iterating over each element within a list. We
do so to perform the desired operations on each item. These operations include list
modification, conditional operations, string manipulation, data analysis, etc.

Python provides various methods for looping through list items, with the most common
being the for loop. We can also use the while loop to iterate through list items, although
it requires additional handling of the loop control variable explicitly i.e. an index.

Loop Through List Items with For Loop

A for loop in Python is used to iterate over a sequence (like a list, tuple, dictionary, string,
or range) or any other iterable object. It allows you to execute a block of code repeatedly
for each item in the sequence.

In a for loop, you can access each item in a sequence using a variable, allowing you to
perform operations or logic based on that item's value. We can loop through list items
using for loop by iterating over each item in the list.

Syntax
Following is the basic syntax to loop through items in a list using a for loop in Python −

for item in list:

# Code block to execute

Example
In the following example, we are using a for loop to iterate through each element in the
list "lst" and retrieving each element followed by a space on the same line −

Open Compiler

lst = [25, 12, 10, -21, 10, 100]

for num in lst:
print (num, end = ' ')

Output

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Following is the output of the above code −

25 12 10 -21 10 100

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Loop Through List Items with While Loop

A while loop in Python is used to repeatedly execute a block of code as long as a specified
condition evaluates to "True".

We can loop through list items using while loop by initializing an index variable, then
iterating through the list using the index variable and incrementing it until reaching the
end of the list.

An index variable is used within a loop to keep track of the current position or
index in a sequence, such as a list or array. It is generally initialized before the
loop and updated within the loop to iterate over the sequence.

Syntax
Following is the basic syntax for looping through items in a list using a while loop in
Python −

while condition:
# Code block to execute

Example
In the below example, we iterate through each item in the list "my_list" using a while loop.
We use an index variable "index" to access each item sequentially, incrementing it after
each iteration to move to the next item −

Open Compiler

my_list = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
index = 0

while index < len(my_list):

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print(my_list[index])
index += 1

Output

Output of the above code is as follows −

1
2
3
4
5

Loop Through List Items with Index

An index is a numeric value representing the position of an element within a sequence,
such as a list, starting from 0 for the first element.

We can loop through list items using index by iterating over a range of indices
corresponding to the length of the list and accessing each element using the index within
the loop.

Example
This example initializes a list "lst" with integers and creates a range of indices
corresponding to the length of the list. Then, it iterates over each index in the range and
prints the value at that index in the list "lst" −

Open Compiler

lst = [25, 12, 10, -21, 10, 100]

indices = range(len(lst))
for i in indices:
print ("lst[{}]: ".format(i), lst[i])

Output

We get the output as shown below −

lst[0]: 25
lst[1]: 12
lst[2]: 10

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10/19/24, 9:34 PM Python - Loop Lists

lst[3]: -21
lst[4]: 10
lst[5]: 100

Iterate using List Comprehension

A list comprehension in Python is a concise way to create lists by applying an expression
to each element of an iterable. These expressions can be arithmetic operations, function
calls, conditional expressions etc.

We can iterate using list comprehension by specifying the expression and the iterable (like
a list, tuple, dictionary, string, or range). Following is the syntax −

[expression for item in iterable]

This applies the expression to each item in the iterable and creates a list of results.

Example
In this example, we use list comprehension to iterate through each number in a list of
numbers, square each one, and store the squared result in the new list
"squared_numbers" −

Open Compiler

numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
squared_numbers = [num ** 2 for num in numbers]
print (squared_numbers)

Output

We get the output as shown below −

[1, 4, 9, 16, 25]

Iterate using the enumerate() Function

The enumerate() function in Python is used to iterate over an iterable object while also
providing the index of each element.

We can iterate using the enumerate() function by applying it to the iterable. Following is
the syntax −

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for index, item in enumerate(iterable):

This provides both the index and item of each element in the iterable during iteration

Example
In the following example, we are using the enumerate() function to iterate through a list
"fruits" and retrieve each fruit along with its corresponding index −

Open Compiler

fruits = ["apple", "banana", "cherry"]

for index, fruit in enumerate(fruits):
print(index, fruit)

Output

We get the output as shown below −

0 apple
1 banana
2 cherry

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