What is a List?
So far you've stored one value in one variable:
student1 = "Rahul"
student2 = "Priya"
student3 = "Gagan"
What if you have 100 students? You can't create 100 variables. That's where Lists come in.
A list stores multiple values in a single variable:
students = ["Rahul", "Priya", "Gagan"]
Done. 3 students in one variable. Scale this to 100 or 1000 — same concept.
Creating a List
# List of strings
fruits = ["apple", "banana", "mango", "orange"]
# List of numbers
marks = [85, 90, 78, 92, 88]
# List of mixed types (allowed in Python)
mixed = ["Gagan", 22, 5.11, True]
# Empty list
empty = []
print(fruits)
print(marks)
Output:
['apple', 'banana', 'mango', 'orange']
[85, 90, 78, 92, 88]
Indexing — Accessing Items
Every item in a list has a position called index. Indexing starts from 0 in Python:
fruits = ["apple", "banana", "mango", "orange"]
# 0 1 2 3
print(fruits[0]) # apple
print(fruits[1]) # banana
print(fruits[2]) # mango
print(fruits[3]) # orange
Negative Indexing
Python also allows counting from the end using negative numbers:
fruits = ["apple", "banana", "mango", "orange"]
print(fruits[-1]) # orange (last item)
print(fruits[-2]) # mango (second last)
print(fruits[-4]) # apple (fourth from end)
Very useful when you want the last item and don't know the length of the list.
Slicing — Getting a Portion of a List
You can extract a section of a list using [start:end]:
fruits = ["apple", "banana", "mango", "orange", "grapes"]
print(fruits[1:3]) # ['banana', 'mango'] (index 1 and 2, not 3)
print(fruits[0:3]) # ['apple', 'banana', 'mango']
print(fruits[2:]) # ['mango', 'orange', 'grapes'] (from index 2 to end)
print(fruits[:3]) # ['apple', 'banana', 'mango'] (from start to index 2)
print(fruits[:]) # entire list
Same rule as range — end index is not included.
Modifying Items
Lists are mutable — you can change their values after creation:
fruits = ["apple", "banana", "mango"]
print(fruits) # ['apple', 'banana', 'mango']
fruits[1] = "grapes" # replace banana with grapes
print(fruits) # ['apple', 'grapes', 'mango']
List Methods — Built-in Operations
Python gives you many built-in methods to work with lists:
Adding Items
fruits = ["apple", "banana"]
fruits.append("mango") # add to the END
print(fruits) # ['apple', 'banana', 'mango']
fruits.insert(1, "orange") # add at specific index
print(fruits) # ['apple', 'orange', 'banana', 'mango']
Removing Items
fruits = ["apple", "banana", "mango", "orange"]
fruits.remove("banana") # remove by value
print(fruits) # ['apple', 'mango', 'orange']
fruits.pop() # remove last item
print(fruits) # ['apple', 'mango']
fruits.pop(0) # remove by index
print(fruits) # ['mango']
Other Useful Methods
numbers = [3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9, 2, 6]
print(len(numbers)) # 8 — total items in list
print(numbers.count(1)) # 2 — how many times 1 appears
print(numbers.index(5)) # 4 — index of value 5
numbers.sort() # sort in ascending order
print(numbers) # [1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9]
numbers.reverse() # reverse the list
print(numbers) # [9, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1]
numbers.sort(reverse=True) # sort in descending order
print(numbers) # [9, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1]
Checking if Item Exists
fruits = ["apple", "banana", "mango"]
print("banana" in fruits) # True
print("grapes" in fruits) # False
if "mango" in fruits:
print("Yes we have mango!")
Looping Through a List
This is where lists really shine — combine with for loops:
fruits = ["apple", "banana", "mango", "orange"]
for fruit in fruits:
print(fruit)
Output:
apple
banana
mango
orange
With index using enumerate():
fruits = ["apple", "banana", "mango"]
for index, fruit in enumerate(fruits): print(f"{index + 1}. {fruit}")
Output:
1. apple
2. banana
3. mango
enumerate() gives you both the index and the value at the same time. Very useful.
List with Functions — Practical Example
def get_total(marks): total = 0 for mark in marks: total += mark return total
def get_average(marks): return get_total(marks) / len(marks)
def get_highest(marks): return max(marks)
def get_lowest(marks): return min(marks)
marks = [85, 90, 78, 92, 88, 76]
print(f"Marks: {marks}") print(f"Total: {get_total(marks)}") print(f"Average: {get_average(marks):.2f}") print(f"Highest: {get_highest(marks)}") print(f"Lowest: {get_lowest(marks)}")
Output:
Marks: [85, 90, 78, 92, 88, 76]
Total: 509
Average: 84.83
Highest: 92
Lowest: 76
List of Lists — 2D List
A list can contain other lists. This is like a table with rows and columns:
students = [ ["Rahul", 85, "A"], ["Priya", 92, "A+"], ["Gagan", 78, "B"] ]
# Accessing print(students[0]) # ['Rahul', 85, 'A'] print(students[0][0]) # Rahul (row 0, column 0) print(students[1][1]) # 92 (row 1, column 1)
# Looping for student in students: print(f"Name: {student[0]}, Marks: {student[1]}, Grade: {student[2]}")
Output:
Name: Rahul, Marks: 85, Grade: A
Name: Priya, Marks: 92, Grade: A+
Name: Gagan, Marks: 78, Grade: B
Common Mistake — Copying a List
This is a classic beginner trap:
list1 = [1, 2, 3] list2 = list1 # this is NOT a copy — both point to same list
list2.append(4) print(list1) # [1, 2, 3, 4] — list1 also changed! print(list2) # [1, 2, 3, 4]
To make a proper independent copy:
list1 = [1, 2, 3] list2 = list1.copy() # proper copy
list2.append(4) print(list1) # [1, 2, 3] — unchanged print(list2) # [1, 2, 3, 4]
Real World Example — Shopping Cart
cart = []
def show_cart(): if len(cart) == 0: print("Cart is empty") else: print("\n=== Your Cart ===") for index, item in enumerate(cart): print(f"{index + 1}. {item}") print(f"Total items: {len(cart)}")
def add_item(): item = input("Enter item name: ") cart.append(item) print(f"{item} added to cart!")
def remove_item(): show_cart() if len(cart) > 0: item = input("Enter item to remove: ") if item in cart: cart.remove(item) print(f"{item} removed!") else: print("Item not found in cart")
while True: print("\n=== Shopping Cart ===") print("1. Add item") print("2. Remove item") print("3. View cart") print("4. Exit")
choice = input("Enter choice: ")
if choice == "1": add_item() elif choice == "2": remove_item() elif choice == "3": show_cart() elif choice == "4": print("Thank you for shopping!") break else: print("Invalid choice")
This is a real mini-application — using everything you've learned so far together.
Quick Reference — All List Methods
fruits = ["apple", "banana", "mango"]
fruits.append("orange") # add to end
fruits.insert(1, "grapes") # add at index
fruits.remove("banana") # remove by value
fruits.pop() # remove last
fruits.pop(0) # remove by index
fruits.sort() # sort ascending
fruits.reverse() # reverse
fruits.clear() # remove all items
fruits.copy() # make a copy
len(fruits) # count items
"apple" in fruits # check existence
fruits.index("mango") # find index of value
fruits.count("apple") # count occurrences
Exercise 🏋️
Build a Number Analyzer program:
- Ask user to enter 5 numbers one by one and store them in a list
- Then display:
- All numbers
- Sum of all numbers
- Average
- Highest number
- Lowest number
- All even numbers from the list
- All odd numbers from the list
- List sorted in ascending order
Expected output:
Enter number 1: 15
Enter number 2: 8
Enter number 3: 23
Enter number 4: 4
Enter number 5: 16
=== Analysis ===
Numbers: [15, 8, 23, 4, 16]
Sum: 66
Average: 13.20
Highest: 23
Lowest: 4
Even numbers: [8, 4, 16]
Odd numbers: [15, 23]
Sorted: [4, 8, 15, 16, 23]
Hint: Use a for loop to collect numbers, and another for loop to separate even and odd numbers into two separate lists.