To create a list in Python:
list_name = ['item1', 'item2', 'item3', ....]
Examples
Here are examples of two lists in Python:
(1) List of products – this list contains strings (by placing the values within quotes):
products = ["microwave", "oven", "toaster", "refrigerator", "dishwasher"]
(2) List of prices – this list contains numbers (i.e., integers) without quotes:
prices = [300, 700, 120, 1300, 950]
Here is the full Python code to create the two lists:
products = ["microwave", "oven", "toaster", "refrigerator", "dishwasher"]
prices = [300, 700, 120, 1300, 950]
print(products)
print(prices)
Run the code in Python, and you’ll get the following two lists:
['microwave', 'oven', 'toaster', 'refrigerator', 'dishwasher']
[300, 700, 120, 1300, 950]You can quickly verify that you created lists using type():
products = ["microwave", "oven", "toaster", "refrigerator", "dishwasher"]
prices = [300, 700, 120, 1300, 950]
print(type(products))
print(type(prices))
You’ll now see that indeed you have two lists:
<class 'list'>
<class 'list'>How to Access an Item within a list
You can access an item within a list in Python by referring to the item’s index:
list_name[index of the item to be accessed]
Where the index of the first item is zero, and then increases sequentially.
For example, to access the third item (index of 2) in both the ‘products‘ and ‘prices‘ lists:
products = ["microwave", "oven", "toaster", "refrigerator", "dishwasher"]
prices = [300, 700, 120, 1300, 950]
print(products[2])
print(prices[2])
You’ll get the third item in each list:
toaster
120You can also access a range of values in your lists. For instance, to access the last 3 products in the ‘products‘ list (index range of 2:5):
products = ["microwave", "oven", "toaster", "refrigerator", "dishwasher"]
prices = [300, 700, 120, 1300, 950]
print(products[2:5])
The last 3 products:
['toaster', 'refrigerator', 'dishwasher']You can even perform arithmetic operations. For example, to deduct the first price (index of 0) from the second price (index of 1):
products = ["microwave", "oven", "toaster", "refrigerator", "dishwasher"]
prices = [300, 700, 120, 1300, 950]
print(prices[1] - prices[0])
So the value that you’ll get is 700-300= 400:
400Check the following tutorials about lists: