Looping through partial sections of an array

Question

I have code from a tutorial that does this:

elements = []

for i in range(0, 6):
    print "Adding %d to the list." % i
    # append is a function that lists understand
    elements.append(i)

for i in elements:
    print "Element was: %d" % i

However, if I only want to print from elements[0] to elements[4], how is this achieved?

I think you mean "list". In Python, an "array" is something [completely different](http://docs.python.org/library/array.html). — Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams, May 30 '12 at 07:57

score 8 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:32

8

This can be achieved using slicing:

for i in elements[0:5]:
    print "Element was: %d" % i

The end index is not included in the range, so you need to bump it up from 4 to 5.

The starting zero can be omitted:

for i in elements[:5]:
    print "Element was: %d" % i

For more information, see Explain Python's slice notation

edited May 23 '17 at 12:32

Community

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answered May 30 '12 at 07:55

NPE

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Thanks. *Slicing* is the word I'm looking for. – stanigator May 30 '12 at 07:56
@stanigator: You're welcome. Please see the updated answer for the link to a good SO post that explains slicing. – NPE May 30 '12 at 07:59
1

Ya, also saw that. Read Python's official documentation about it too afterwards. – stanigator May 30 '12 at 08:01

Looping through partial sections of an array

1 Answers1