Kaushal, > 8.7 List slices
You might find it worth going through the official tutor section on slicing, it explains the various forms quite well. >>> list[:4] --> Does this mean its list[0:4] Sort of, it means from *the beginning* to 4. >>> list[3:] --> Does this mean its list[3:0] No it means from 3 to *the end* >>> list[:] --> Does this mean its list[0:0] No, it means from *the beginning* to *the end* These are all just shortcut conventions that you need to learn. Another one that can be confusing is negative slices: list[-3:] means from the -3 position(ie 3 from the end) to the end list[3:-3] means from the 3rd position to the -3 position I find it helps to thingk of the collection organised as a ring with the counter sitting between the items. Thus zero sits between the first and last items. Unfortunately this breaks down if you do list [-3:3] which is an error but is not reported as such, rathger it returns an empty list! Basically, play with them a lot and you will get used to their little oddities, the huge benefits outweigh the occasional confusion. HTH, Alan G Author of the learn to program web tutor http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
