Lists is a sequence and a basic data structure.   A list may contain strings (text) and numbers.  A list is similar to an array in other programming languages, but has additional functionality.

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Practice Python with interactive exercises

Python List

We define lists with brackets []. To access the data, these same brackets are used. Example list usage:

#!/usr/bin/python
l = [ "Drake", "Derp", "Derek", "Dominique" ]
print(l)     # prints all elements
print(l[0])  # print first element
print(l[1])  # prints second element

Add/remove

We can use the functions append() and remove() to manipulate the list.

#!/usr/bin/python
l = [ "Drake", "Derp", "Derek", "Dominique" ]
print(l)                # prints all elements
l.append("Victoria")   # add element.
print(l)                # print all elements
l.remove("Derp")       # remove element.
l.remove("Drake")      # remove element.
print(l)               # print all elements.

Sort list

We can sort the list using the sort() function.

#!/usr/bin/python
l = [ "Drake", "Derp", "Derek", "Dominique" ]
print(l)     # prints all elements
l.sort()    # sorts the list in alphabetical order
print(l)     # prints all elements

If you want to have the list in descending order, simply use the reverse() function.

#!/usr/bin/python
l = [ "Drake", "Derp", "Derek", "Dominique" ]
print(l)     # prints all elements
l.sort()    # sorts the list in alphabetical order
l.reverse() # reverse order.
print(l)     # prints all elements