Slicing Lists and Tuples in Python
Internal
Overview
Slicing means extracting of a section of elements from of a list or a tuple, using the slice notation:
[<start-index>:<end-index>:<step>]
The elements are selected as follows: start with the start index, and keep adding the step value to obtain the indices of the selected elements. Stop when the index value such computed is equal or larger than the end index. In case of a negative step, stop if the index value such calculated is equal or smaller than the end index. The end index is the index of the first element not included in the slice.
Start Index
The start index can be missing, and in that case is either 0 for a positive step, or len - 1 for a negative step:
l = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h']
# 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
assert l[1:3] == ['b', 'c']
assert l[:3] == ['a', 'b', 'c']
assert l[:3:-1] == ['h', 'g', 'f', 'e']
End Index
The end index can be missing, and in that case is either len for a positive step, or - 1 for a negative step:
l = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h']
# 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
assert l[1:3] == ['b', 'c']
assert l[1:] == ['b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h']
assert l[1::-1] == ['b', 'a']
assert l[:] == ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h']
Step
The steps represents the increment added to start index to obtain selected indexes. The elements are selected starting from the start index (inclusive) and then successively adding the step value to obtain the value of the selected indexes, until the index value is equal or larger than the end index for positive steps, or equal or smaller than the end index for negative steps.
If the step is omitted, it defaults to 1. [1:3], [1:3:] and [1:3:1] are equivalent and result in:
l = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h']
# 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
assert l[1:3] == ['b', 'c']
assert l[1:3:] == ['b', 'c']
assert l[1:3:1] == ['b', 'c']
If the step has a value larger than 1, non-successive elements are selected:
l = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h']
# 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
assert l[1:6:2] == ['b', 'd', 'f']
If the step has a negative value, the same algorithm applies: the interpreter starts with start index, keeps adding the step in a loop, which now is a negative value, so the iteration advances toward the beginning of the list, and stops when the resulted index is equal or smaller than the end index:
l = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h']
# 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
assert l[6:3:-1] == ['g', 'f', 'e']
Copy a List using a Slice
l2 = l[:]
Reverse a List using a Slice
l[::-1]
l = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f']
assert ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f'] == l[:] # starts from the beginning and ends after the end of the list
assert ['c', 'd'] == l[2:4]
assert ['c'] == l[2:4:2]
The step can be negative, which means the slice starts at the end and goes from right to left.
l = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f']
assert ['f', 'e', 'd', 'c', 'b', 'a'] == l[::-1]
[:] creates a copy of the list.
l = ['a', 'b', 'c']
l2 = l[:]
l2[0] = 'x'
assert ['a', 'b', 'c'] == l
assert ['x', 'b', 'c'] == l2
Remove the last element of the list:
l = ['a', 'b', 'c']
l2 = l[:-1]
assert ['a', 'b'] == l2
Extract Elements from the Tail of the List Starting with a Certain Index
l = [1, 2, 3]
assert l[0:] == [1, 2, 3]
assert l[1:] == [2, 3]
assert l[2:]== [3]
assert l[3:] == [] # empty list
assert l[4:] == [] # empty list
Extract Elements from the Head of the List Counting from the Tail
TODO