Advanced Lists
In this series of lectures we will be diving a little deeper into all the methods
available in a list object. These aren't officially "advanced" features, just methods
that you wouldn't typically encounter without some additional exploring. It's
pretty likely that you've already encountered some of these yourself!
Let's begin!
list1 = [1,2,3]
append
You will definitely have used this method by now, which merely
appends an element to the end of a list:
list1.append(4)
list1
[1, 2, 3, 4]
count
We discussed this during the methods lectures, but here it is
again. count() takes in an element and returns the number of
times it occurs in your list:
list1.count(10)
list1.count(2)
1
extend
Many times people find the difference between extend and append
to be unclear. So note:
append: appends whole object at end:
x = [1, 2, 3]
x.append([4, 5])
print(x)
[1, 2, 3, [4, 5]]
extend: extends list by appending elements from the iterable:
x = [1, 2, 3]
x.extend([4, 5])
print(x)
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Note how extend() appends each element from the passed-in list.
That is the key difference.
index
index() will return the index of whatever element is placed as an
argument. Note: If the the element is not in the list an error is raised.
list1.index(2)
list1.index(12)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
ValueError Traceback (most recent call la
st)
<ipython-input-8-56b94ada72bf> in <module>()
----> 1 list1.index(12)
ValueError: 12 is not in list
insert
insert() takes in two arguments: insert(index,object) This
method places the object at the index supplied. For example:
list1
[1, 2, 3, 4]
# Place a letter at the index 2
list1.insert(2,'inserted')
list1
[1, 2, 'inserted', 3, 4]
pop
You most likely have already seen pop() , which allows us to "pop"
off the last element of a list. However, by passing an index position
you can remove and return a specific element.
ele = list1.pop(1) # pop the second element
list1
[1, 'inserted', 3, 4]
ele
2
remove
The remove() method removes the first occurrence of a value. For
example:
list1
[1, 'inserted', 3, 4]
list1.remove('inserted')
list1
[1, 3, 4]
list2 = [1,2,3,4,3]
list2.remove(3)
list2
[1, 2, 4, 3]
reverse
As you might have guessed, reverse() reverses a list. Note this
occurs in place! Meaning it affects your list permanently.
list2.reverse()
list2
[3, 4, 2, 1]
sort
The sort() method will sort your list in place:
list2
[3, 4, 2, 1]
list2.sort()
list2
[1, 2, 3, 4]
The sort() method takes an optional argument for reverse
sorting. Note this is different than simply reversing the order of
items.
list2.sort(reverse=True)
list2
[4, 3, 2, 1]
Be Careful With Assignment!
A common programming mistake is to assume you can assign a
modified list to a new variable. While this typically works with
immutable objects like strings and tuples:
x = 'hello world'
y = x.upper()
print(y)
HELLO WORLD
This will NOT work the same way with lists:
x = [1,2,3]
y = x.append(4)
print(y)
None
What happened? In this case, since list methods
like append() affect the list in-place, the operation returns a None
value. This is what was passed to y. In order to retain x you would
have to assign a copy of x to y, and then modify y:
x = [1,2,3]
y = x.copy()
y.append(4)
print(x)
[1, 2, 3]
print(y)
[1, 2, 3, 4]
